Widnes finally exorcised the painful memory of a narrow play-off defeat a couple of season’s back, with an eight try demolition job of their Cumbrian rivals at Heath Road.

The home side were irresistible in the first half building up a commanding 31 - 0 half time lead with tries from; Paul O’Connor (2), Paul Borg, Mike Lamb and Matty Smith along with three conversions.

They soon extended that lead as both Chris Atkin and Matty Smith crossed to put the result beyond doubt.

After that though, they became sloppy and dis-jointed allowing their Cumbrian visitors to mount something of a rear guard action to score four tries and earn themselves a bonus point.

In between all of this, Paul O’Connor kept a cool head to go on an intelligent long weaving run and complete a well deserved hat –trick of tries which brought up the half century of points.