On a crazy night in central Lancashire, as St Helens also shipped 40 points at Leigh, the sheer size of Wigan’s defeat also cost them second place to Hull KR.
Although Matt Peet’s Warriors do still have a game in hand, and are on the same 28 points mark as Wire and Hull KR, they will be in third place when they play next on Thursday evening at home to Huddersfield.
Warrington return to action the following night at home to Hull KR, a game that would only be another meeting of the top two if Wigan lose again.
It was an error-strewn Wigan performance, from the moment Lindop pounced on Matt Dufty’s low kick to touch down inside the opening two minutes.
Marshall’s 26th try of the season equalled his previous best scoring season of 2017 to bringing up 600 points for Warriors. But Harry Smith failed to level as he pulled the conversion wide.
Then the hosts’ failure to deal with Ben Currie’s kick in the danger area allowed Wigan old boys Sam Powell and George Williams to combine with Josh Drinkwater to send Holroyd over.
Jack Farrimond’s loose pass was then intercepted by the galloping Ashton 10 metres from Warrington’s own tryline to earn Wire an 18-4 half-time lead – and any hopes of a comeback were extinguished four minutes into the second half when Lindop shrugged off Abbas Miski’s tackle to skip through for his second.
On a night when Wigan lost hooker Brad O’Neill, who had to be helped off with a knee injury, Ashton touched down again before the Thewlis interception try. And, even Dufty’s late sin-binning made no difference as Tai rounded it all off.
