‘DON’T Panic!’

That’s the message from Widnes assistant-coach Mick Cassidy as his players look to end a five game losing streak against Catalans Dragons on Sunday.

The Vikings last victory came against Salford Red Devils at the Magic Weekend in Newcastle and they are currently lying in tenth place in Super League.

With just three games to go before the split into the Super 8s, it’s now going to take a minor miracle to make the top eight and avoid a relegation scrap via The Qualifiers.

Cassidy said: “If you start to panic, that’s when you lose focus.

“There’s a lot of rugby league left in this season.

“We’d love to be playing in the top eight competition and that’s still possible. But if we’re not, we’ll be giving it everything we’ve got to make sure we can stay in Super League.

“The major part of the competition is still to play.

“Wherever you end up, whether it’s the Top 8 or the Middle 8, you want to go into it with the confidence of playing well.

“It’s about putting good performances in and getting fit bodies on the field and going into the Super 8s with confidence.”

The Vikings are resigned to being without skipper and playmaker Kevin Brown for a lengthy spell and experienced pack man Danny Tickle is still several weeks away from full fitness.

However, Cassidy was impressed with the contribution of returning prop Eamon O’Carroll in the 34-20 defeat at Castleford on Sunday and he felt young half-back Tom Gilmore performed well after being called back from his loan spell with London Broncos to replace the injured Brown.

Denis Betts’ right hand man has also not ruled out strengthening the squad before this year’s signing deadline but concedes finding the right players at this stage is a tricky task.

He added “I was impressed with Eamon O’Carroll’s first game back after about seven weeks and I also thought Tom Gilmore stood up well."

Widnes are hopeful that threequarters Patrick Ah Van and Stefan Marsh will be fit to face the Dragons at the Select Security Stadium on Sunday.

“It just shows that having your younger players getting games elsewhere is essential to help them slot back in when they come back to you.

“I think Tom’s matured over his spell at London.

“Of course we’d like to bring players in.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not happy with the players we have at the club but strength-in-depth is the best coaching tool.

“If you can rotate players to keep them fresh we’d love to do that.

“We’ll carry on looking for players and if we find one who can bolster our squad I’m sure that’s what we’ll do.

“It’s about getting the right player to fill the spot you want.

“Unfortunately we’ve been losing people in pivotal roles and finding people to bring in who are better than what you have is hard.”