Bradford Bulldogs 3 Widnes Wild 13

WIDNES Wild shrugged off the stresses of a late arrival to secure a 13-3 success at Bradford Bulldogs.

Wild, missing Bobby Caunce, Geoff Wigglesworth and Tom Ratcliffe but fielding Greg Ruxton as netminder, were held up by heavy motorway traffic.

Nevertheless, the visitors took a two-goal lead, the first from Sam Dunford after 10mins 38secs coming from a Filip Supa feed while Bradford were down to three skaters.

Within two minutes Widnes doubled their lead, Ben Brown and Shaun Dipnall supplying Dan Bracegirdle. The defenceman fired a rising angled shot from the blue line, high into the Bulldogs net.

Tom Jackson and Matt Wainwright set up Supa for a third goal at 21.12 and then three goals in under a minute saw Wild take complete control.

Chris Preston was the first scorer, slotting home a measured cross-ice pass from Supa.

Within seconds Dunford struck again after Kieron Strangeway's pass put him clear.

Ben Brown added a sixth from close in on the right after some fine work from Bez Hughes.

Shaun Dipnall made it seven for Wild, crashing home a rebound off the netminder after 29mins 54secs.

Maybe a touch of complacency crept in but Bradford got back into the game in the 37th minute.

Outstanding forward Myles Dacres broke clear before forcing the puck past Ruxton and taking the net off the mounts.

Within seconds he had added a second goal, finishing well from close in.

Wild coach Mark Gillingham took the Widnes travelling support by surprise by giving young Sheffield netminder Josh Benstead his debut for the third period. After a couple of confident blocks he was unlucky to concede the third Bradford goal, when Corey Stones took a pass out on the boards and fired a low shot from a seemingly impossible angle into the bottom right corner.

This spurred Wild back into intense action.

They took firm control, Shaun Dipnall netting from a Dunford pass.

Within 30 seconds Supa put the visitors further ahead with Dipnall the provider.

Bracegirdle scored his second of the night with a low shot after good work by Ken Armstrong and Preston.

This prompted a netminder change for Bradford, Matthew Fox replacing Jake Higham but Fox could not keep out a Supa solo effort at 46mins 39secs.

Kieron Strangeway crashed home a 12th in the 55th minute with Lee Pollitt wrapping up the scoring a minute later.

Both goals were assisted by the irrepressible Dunford who took the MVP for Widnes.

The game saw Wild playing with much more confidence against potentially tricky improving opponents.

Thirteen Widnes goals were shared amongst eight different players with another four adding assists.

The stop-start fixture list has not helped team cohesion but the team return to home ice for a potentially exciting fixture against Hull Jets on Sunday, face off 6.15pm.

Gillingham was full of praise for his team's resurgent performance, saying: "The team realised their true scoring potential and we hope to see the Widnes crowd backing us to the hilt in Sunday's match against Hull."