HAT-TRICKS from Joe Mellor and Patrick Ah Van crowned a second half supershow from the Vikings as they put Bradford Bulls to the sword 56-12 at the Provident Stadium.

There was little sign of the rout to come when the teams trudged off at half-time with Widnes holding a slender 14-12 lead.

But seven unanswered tries saw the Vikings coast away from their Championship opponents to ease the pressure as they seek to retain their Super League status for 2016.

Widnes enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and went close to opening the scoring but Ah Van was stopped just short.

As always seems to be the case in modern rugby league, the momentum shifted and the Vikings survived four back-to-back sets on their own line.

Just when it seemed they'd weathered the storm, a break up centre field saw the Bulls keep the ball alive and skipper Adrian Purtell was on hand to finish off with Danny Addy's conversion making it 6-0.

On 22 minutes, Widnes hit back when Bradford failed to deal with a Kevin Brown bomb and Joe Mellor picked up the pieces to score in the corner.

The Vikings were quickly back on the attack from the restart and a superb 40/20 kick from Brown gave them great field position.

From the resulting pressure, Brown cut through from a Rhys Hanbury offload to send Ah Van diving over for his second try to give his side an 8-6 lead.

Almost immediately, a Chris Clarkson surge through the middle saw him find Mellor in support for Widnes' third try with White adding the extras.

Widnes looked set to finish the first half with more points as they poured forward but Bulls winger Omari Caro had Vikings fans biting their nails at the interval when he intercepted a Brown pass and romped the length of the field to make it all to play for at 14-12.

The opening minutes of the second period suggested nail-biting might indeed the order of the day with both sides looking nervous, but once Charly Runciman scored from a Danny Galea offload on 47 minutes, the Vikings never looked back.

Mellor's hat-trick try was something to behold. He launched what looked like a routine downfield kick, but amazingly chased 60 years to regather himself and race away from a shocked home defence.

A Danny Tickle penalty goal pushed the lead out to 26-12 and there was a sense the writing was now on the wall for the Bulls.

Aaron Heremaia' short ball sent Hep Cahill galloping in and routine handling to the left allowed Ah Van to cross for his second.

A bewildering passage of play featuring numerous offloads had Bradford chasing shadows and ended with Tickle sending Hanbury strolling under the posts.

With nine minutes remaining, Brown danced his way over on last tackle through an exhausted Bulls defence and the icing on the cake was supplied by Ah Van who completed his treble with a walk-in from Brown's long pass.

Bradford: Clare; Caro, Nielsen, Purtell, Williams; Addy Mullaney; Clough, O'Brien, Sidlow, Ferguson, Olbison, Pitts. Subs: Blythe, Mellor, Lauaki, Crossley.

Widnes: Hanbury; Flynn, Dean, Runciman, Ah Van; Brown, Mellor; Gerrard, White, Dudson, Tickle, Galea, Cahill. Subs: Heremaia, Clarkson, Manuokafoa, Whitley.

Half-Time: 12-14.

Referee: Joe Cobb.

Attendance: 6,881.