WIDNES went down to their third heavy defeat to Wakefield of the season at Halton Stadium on Friday, ending their hopes of gaining an extra home game in the Qualifiers.

The final scoreline of 36-8 in Trinity's favour was a fair reflection of Trinity's dominance.

The visitors ran harder, tackled harder and were smarter than the Vikings across the board on a dispiriting night for Denis Betts' men.

Betts brought key playmaker Rangi Chase back into the team after suspension to partner Joe Mellor in the halves.

Lloyd White missed out with a pectoral injury allowing Aaron Heremaia to move into the hooking role while Tom Olbison and Eamon O'Carroll came in on the bench.

The nip and tuck of the opening exchanges came to an end courtesy of a bit of Mellor magic.

The livewire half-back jinked his way through for a fine solo try from 15 metres out with Stefan Marsh adding the extras to make it 6-0.

However, that was as good as it got for the Vikings as Trinity began to take control.

On 13 minutes a move at the back of the scrum freed flying winger Mason Caton-Brown who flew in at the corner for the visitors' first score.

Liam Finn levelled things up at 6-6 with a penalty goal and life got trickier for Widnes when Heremaia went off injured and winger Ryan Ince was sent to the sin-bin for an off-the-ball tackle on Caton-Brown.

Marsh pushed the Vikings ahead with a 30-metre penalty but Trinity exploited their numerical advantage when centre Bill Tupou fopund a huge hole to cross for a six-pointer.

Ince returned from the bin but was bundled into touch after fielding a kick and from the resulting scrum Sam Williams crossed for Wakefield through some paper thin Vikings defence to make it 18-8 at the break.

Wakefield continued to look the sharper side early in the second half but the Vikings broke out as Mellor created a chance for Ince but the Wakefield scrambling defence kept him out.

It took until the 62nd minute for the next score to come and it came Trinity's way as Tinirau Arona latched on to a crossfield kick to score in the corner.

At 24-8 and with the rain pouring down there was no way back for Widnes and further scores to Caton-Brown and Tupou completed a disappointing night at the office for the Vikings.

Widnes: Thompson; Ince, Bridge, Runciman, Marsh; Mellor, Heremaia; Dudson, White, Buchanan, Houston, Whitley, Cahill. Subs: Johnstone, Burke, Heremaia, O'Carroll, Gerrard.

Wakefield: Grix; Jones-Bishop, Arundel, Tupou, Caton-Brown; Williams, Finn; Walker, Wood, Huby, Ashurst, Hadley, Arona. Subs: Annakin, Hirst, Fifita, England.

Half-Time: 8-18 Referee: Mr C Kendall Attendance: 4,977