A captain's try late in the first half from Great Britain star Sean O'Loughlin and some determined defending after the break gave Wigan a slender victory over Wakefield on a horrible night at the JJB Stadium.

The visitors had led through two penalty goals from centre Tony Martin before O'Loughlin took a short ball from Mickey Higham to drive his way over through the massed defence on the Wakefield line.

A Pat Richards conversion and a penalty goal early in the second period completed the scoring on a night where the conditions came out firmly on top, although both sides were not short on effort in front of a crowd of 12,933.

Wigan coach Brian Noble had sprung a huge selection shock before the game by leaving out Trent Barrett as a precaution after the Australian stand-off picked up a slight knee injury in the week.

The Wildcats were forced to name a patched-up side due to an injury crisis, coach John Kear having to do without the likes of Brad Drew, Danny Brough, Sam Obst, Paul Reilly and Brett Ferres.

The home side were the first to threaten and second-row Phil Bailey was held up over the line by two tacklers after eight minutes, with Wakefield winger Sean Gleeson doing well to field a towering kick on the next tackle to ease the pressure.

The swirling wind and driving rain was making any kind of open rugby nigh on impossible, and defences remained firmly on top until the midway point in the half when George Carmont gathered a short kick from Jamie Rooney but was tackled behind his tryline at the expense of a drop-out.

On the next set Higham, on for Mike McIlorum, offended in the tackle in front of his own posts and Martin booted over the penalty to put the Wildcats 2-0 in front.

Then, moments later, Jason Demetriou broke down the left-hand side for Rooney to kick to the corner, with only the covering Mark Calderwood preventing the visitors registering the first try.

From the resulting scrum, however, referee Ian Smith again penalised Wigan in front of their own posts and Martin's second goal pushed the lead out to four points.

But Martin went from hero to villain after 34 minutes when he spilled the ball on the first tackle right on his own tryline, and Wigan quickly spread the ball left for O'Loughlin to crash over from close range.

Pat Richards added the conversion to edge his side in front at the break, but fell just short with an ambitious penalty attempt from over 40 metres out on the last play of the half.

Wakefield's task was made harder just three minutes into the second period when, after warning them for persistent offside in the first half, referee Ian Smith dispatched Jason Golden to the sin-bin for 10 minutes.

Then, seconds later, the rampaging Iafeta Paleaaesina offloaded the ball to Higham, who was stopped inches short of the line and then conceded a penalty for not playing the ball properly.

Wigan made big yards on their next set after a slick pass from Carmont released Liam Colbon, but the defence got back in enough numbers to snuff out the danger.

Richards booted over another penalty goal, again for offside, just as Wakefield regained their full complement of players.

Wigan had a lucky escape on the hour mark as a poor kick from Richard Mathers found only the arms of Wildcats centre Ryan Atkins, who pinned his ears back to go the 80 metres to the tryline but then knocked on after colliding with Richards.

The Wildcats really turned the screw around the 70-minute mark, forcing four successive sets thanks to a ball steal, a penalty and a drop out, and Golden thought he had scored only to be held up over the line with men outside him.

Higham was sin-binned in the final minute for slowing down a play-the-ball but Wigan held on for the spoils.