Salford City Reds missed the chance to move off the bottom of the engage Super League table as in-form Wakefield Trinity Wildcats maintained their top six challenge at the Willows.

It was the Wildcats half-back pairing of Jamie Rooney and Ben Jeffries who were the chief architects of a well deserved victory.

Jeffries scored one try and created three others, while Rooney finished with a personal tally of 17 points with a try, five goals and a drop goal.

The Wildcats built the foundations for the win with a superb first-half display which saw them lead 20-6 at one stage.

The Wildcats started in impressive fashion and after Paul White had gone close in the opening minute it was no surprise when the visitors were first on the scoreboard.

It was Wildcats stand-off Rooney, returning to the side after missing the last two games with a knee problem, who crashed over from close range.

Salford responded with their first attack of the game when scrum-half Luke Robinson threw an outrageous dummy and then scooted over from 20 metres out to score in the corner and John Wilshere added a fine touchline conversion.

But the rest of the half belonged to the Wildcats as three tries in 12 minutes, all of which involved influential scrum-half Jeffries, saw them open up a 20-6 advantage.

Firstly, a Jeffries kick caused confusion in the Salford defence and Duncan Macgillivray was on hand to scoop up the loose ball and plunge over.

Then an inventive kick through by Ben Obst was seized upon by Jeffries who hacked the ball on and although Salford stand-off Luke Dorn beat the Wakefield man to the ball he failed to pick up cleanly and Jeffries pounced for the try.

As Jeffries continued to tease the Salford defence his bullet pass allowed Ryan Atkins to power over and with Rooney on target with two conversions John Kear's men were in command.

But Salford gave themselves a lifeline when David Hodgson went over after the home side had kept the ball alive on the sixth tackle and Wilshere's conversion cut the deficit to 20-12 at half-time.

Two penalties from Rooney and one from Wilshere kept the scoreboard ticking over at the start of the second half but Wakefield grabbed a crucial try when a Jeffries bomb allowed Peter Fox to claim the ball and touch. Although Rooney missed the conversion he added a drop goal to make it 29-14.

The win was sealed four minutes from time when Atkins grabbed his second try of the night which meant Simon Finnigan's last-minute try for Salford was just a consolation.