A YOUTHFUL Widnes side missing 11 players was ruthlessly torn apart by a Wolves side that looked way ahead in terms of preparation for the season.

But Denis Betts looked at the game as a way of seeing what his young fringe players could do under pressure, rather than viewing it as a game that needed to be won.

The 40-0 result reflected that, with the scheming of Wolves new signing Kurt Gidley and young half back partner Declan Patton pulling Vikings apart.

After both sides had weighed each other up in the opening stages Wolves drew first blood on six minutes when centre Toby King plucked Declan Patton’s perfectly weighted kick from the air to touch down.

Gidley got his points tally off the ground with the conversion.

It soon became obvious that Wolves were much better prepared than the hosts for this festive encounter, and that shone through in the defence as much as attack.

Even when Vikings piled on some pressure, the Warrington line showed no sign of being breached.

And they strongly defended a couple of penalties on their own line, the first after the touch judge had spotted an infringement from Jack Hughes, the second following an offside from Kevin Penny.

Turning defence into attack swiftly, Wolves were soon down at the other end of the pitch.

And hooker Brad Dwyer showed his craft, strength and eye for the gap to spin out of the tackle to go over from dummy half.

Gidley, who was not putting a foot wrong, slotted the extras to make it 12-0.

Another smart Patton kick forced a drop out, a kick from which Tom Lineham nearly returned with interest when he surged down the right flank.

The former Hull wing’s inside pass was intercepted by Chris Dean, who was promptly tackled behind the line.

From the subsequent set the unstoppable Dwyer grabbed his second from dummy half with Gidley’s boot making it 18-0.

It took a tremendous cover tackle from Vikings scrum half Joe Mellor to deny Wolves’ speedy second row Ben Currie, before Penny ran out of room in the corner.

But they were not to be denied for much longer with a particularly clever Gidley kick to the right being taken by Lineham for a debut score.

The emphatic nature of the first half was complete on the hooter with Patton getting a touch to Gidley’s kick under the stick, the latter adding his fifth goal to make it 30-0.

Scoring rate stemmed for the third quarter, but after a Patton 40/20 the Wolves piled on the pressure. On the last, Patton’s boot launched another attacking kick with Rhys Evans knocking it back inside for Jack Johnson to score.

Harvey Livett wrapped up the scoring with a try in the last minute, with Patton goaling.

Widnes: Thompson; Flynn, Marsh, Dean, Ince; Mellor, Gilmore; Manuokafoa, White, T. Chapelhow, Whitley, Cahill, Gerrard. Subs: Heremaia, Walsh, Johnstone, Ashall, Houghton, Norman, Walker, J. Chapelhow.

Warrington: Russell; Penny, R. Evans, T. King, Lineham; Gidley, Patton; Cox, Dwyer, Sims, Hughes, Currie, Philbin. Subs: Johnson, G. King, Murray, Ormsby, Smith, Ryan, Livett, Wilde, Peet, Julien, Harris, Kenny.