SAINTS overcame a potential banana skin at Wakefield to safely bank two points, but victory was achieved at a cost with influential skipper Paul Sculthorpe and Vinnie Anderson leaving the field with injuries.

With Sculthorpe staying off at half time and Anderson retiring ten minutes later, Saints were forced into playing a more conservative brand of football.

Anderson actually picked up his injury scoring Saints' last try, as he sped up in support of another fine break down the right flank from Jamie Lyon, before careering over the line.

That score, with Lyon's conversion, gave Saints a 36-14 lead, and although Trinity rallied with two tries in as many minutes at three-quarter time, the visitors were able to hang on. Saints were inspired by another top display from Keiron Cunningham, who again led from the front in what turned out to be a combative match.

Castleford-based prop Paul Anderson lives down the road from Wakefield and treated the game like a local derby and was always in the thick of the skirmishing with the robust Wildcats pack.

Even towards the end of this energy sapping encounter, the 19-stone veteran seemed reluctant to leave the field for a breather after sustaining a cut eye in a midfield rumble. He had to be blood binned by the referee before he would leave the fold.

The match was a stark contrast to the previous week's oneway traffic at home to Wigan, although Saints started where they left off with Cunningham and Ian Hardman creating space for Lyon to touch down with only 44 seconds on the clock.

The energetic Trinity side hit back and pressed the Saints line. But despite winning three successive penalties the homesters could only come away with two points from the boot of Jamie Rooney from the last of those infringements.

Saints responded with fine play from Ade Gardner, who sent Sculthorpe crashing over.

But the Wildcats, playing their first game under new boss Tony Smith, were in no mood to watch one side hog the scoring and rallied with a close range effort from powerhouse French prop Olivier Elima to peg the margin back to four points.

But a schoolboy error by Trinity, who turned their back on a penalty 60 metres out, enabled Cunningham to tap and go, bursting up the middle before popping the pass to the supporting Jon Wilkin for the first of his two tries.

The tit-for-tat continued with David Solomona sending half back Ben Jeffries scampering in, but Paul Wellens restored the ten-point cushion at the break when he was first to react to the rebound off the post padding from Sculthorpe's kick.

After rattling in two early second half tries from Wilkin and Vinnie Anderson, Saints withstood a late rally from the Wildcats.

Although tries from Jason Demetriou and Jeffries second caused enough concern to force Saints into kicking a 76th minute penalty, the win was never really in doubt.