WIDNES forward Hep Cahill has praised his side's resilience following their nail-biting 21-20 win over Salford on Sunday.

The victory, which came courtesy of a last-gasp Danny Craven drop-goal, secured ninth place for the Vikings at the end of the regular season, giving them four home games in The (Middle 8) Qualifiers.

Cahill said "We made it tough for ourselves.

"To be fair, Salford came out firing because both teams were looking for a win to get that ninth spot.

"They made it hard for us and their line speed was really good.

"Denis (Betts) had a talk to us at half-time and told us to stick at it and we'd come out on the right side.

"Fortunately we stuck in their for the full 80 minutes and came away with the win.

"There have probably been some games this year where if we'd have dug in like that we'd have finished in the Top 8."

Coach Betts admitted after the match that he didn't believe the late drop-goal was the right option.

With his team only needing a draw to clinch ninth spot, Betts would have preferred just to maintain pressure at the Salford end.

However, out on the pitch, Cahill was one of those calling for the one-pointer.

He revealed "Danny Craven is probably the most skilled in our team. He kicks drop-goals like that for fun every day at training.

"I had every confidence in him and I was definitely one of those screaming 'Do it now!'"

Having put up a highly competitive showing at Wigan a week last Friday and followed that up with Sunday's come-from-behind win, Cahill believes the Vikings are in good shape for The Qualifiers.

And with the squad set to be bolstered by the addition of new Australian signing Charly Runciman and the return of several injured stars, he is confident Widnes will be taking their place in Super League in 2016.

He added "As soon as we lost at Wigan we knew we couldn't make the Top 8 so our focus shifted to finishing in that ninth spot.

"Now we're looking forward to the next seven games and we'll be looking for seven wins.

"I'm 100 per cent confident in the boys.

"The performance against Wigan and the way we fought for victory against Salford will give us a lot of confidence as a team.

"We have a lot of trust in each other and we'll take that into the Middle 8s.

"We've got young Charly coming in which will give us a bit more competition in the outside backs.

"Kev (Brown) and Lloyd (White) are close to coming back too so that experience will help us.

"Everyone will be pushing hard at training because we know that positions in the team aren't safe."