Warrington held off a spirited second-half fightback to stun favourites Wigan in Saturday's first Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final and end a 19-year wait for a trip to Wembley.

Former Australia Test winger Matt King scored the first semi-final hat-trick since Wigan winger Brett Dallas got three against Warrington at the same Widnes venue in 2004 as the Wolves surged into a 32-8 lead after 49 minutes.

But the Wolves were forced into a desperate rearguard effort when Wigan responded with three second-half tries that cut the deficit to just six points.

Warrington stand-off Lee Briers, whose extra-time drop goal enabled the Wolves to squeeze through their quarter-final against Hull KR, then came up with another precious one-pointer to calm growing fears before winger Chris Hicks went through a tiring Wigan defence for the clinching try five minutes from the end.

Briers' heroics earned him the man-of-the-match award but, more crucially, ended 12 years of trying as he finally looks forward to a Challenge Cup final appearance after three semi-final defeats.

Warrington were also indebted to Briers' half-back partner Michael Monaghan, whose first-half mastery helped spark a points spree of three tries in a devastating seven-minute spell.

The biggest beneficiary of the half-backs' trickery was ex-Melbourne centre King with his first hat-trick in English rugby.

It represented a remarkable change of fortunes for the Australian, whose form was so poor at the start of the season that he was barracked by his own fans and forced to issue a public apology for responding with a one-fingered gesture.

That came during a 60-8 hammering at Harlequins in March, but since then the Wolves' fortunes have turned around dramatically under England coach Tony Smith.

Yet it had all started so promisingly for Wigan with the returning Phil Bailey giving them the lead with a seventh minute try while two goals from Pat Richards took him past 1,000 points for the club and gave them an 8-0 lead.

But the Warriors suffered a blow when Bailey, back from a two-match lay-off with a leg injury, was forced off with an Achilles problem with ended his action for the day.

The Wolves served notice of their danger when second rower Ben Westwood had a third-minute try disallowed by video referee Phil Bentham, ironically from Warrington, for an obstruction.

And, with Monaghan pulling the strings, Smith's men seized control with that three-try burst which exposed Wigan's defensive deficiencies.

King forced his way over despite the efforts of four defenders, second rower Louis Anderson took advantage of a blunder by Wigan's error-prone winger Amos Roberts and Briers dummied his way over for a try.

With Chris Bridge adding all three conversions to make it 18-8, the game had turned decisively and there was no way back for Wigan after they conceded another two tries before half-time.

Warriors prop Andy Coley was held up over the tryline but it was largely one-way traffic as the game slipped away from the Warriors.

Substitute Michael Cooper took Briers' short pass to crash over and Monaghan produced his magic just before the break to gift King his second try.

It got even better for the Warrington faithful when King completed his hat-trick nine minutes into the second half, leaping into the air unopposed to touch down Briers' pinpoint kick to extend his side's lead to 32-8.

Wigan threatened an unlikely fightback when Sam Tomkins re-gathered his own kick to score a try on 55 minutes

Warrington, who lost winger Chris Riley through injury, did their best to keep their opponents in the game, with front rowers Adrian Morley and Garreth Carvell both coming up with unforced errors inside their own half.

Wigan took full advantage to build pressure on their opponents line and tries from Andy Coley, profiting from a superb offload from front-row partner Paul Prescott, and Thomas Leuluai, who twisted and turned out of Richard Mathers' last-ditch tackle, set up a dramatic finish.

Richards' fifth goal from as many attempts cut the gap to just six points but Briers calmed growing nerves with a coolly-taken 30-metre drop goal to put two scores between the sides.

Hicks then took advantage of a tiring Wigan defence to cut through for his side's seventh try and Bridge kicked his fifth goal.