VIKINGS head coach Francis Cummins says his side must improve their game if they are to get anything from their trip to Salford on Saturday, with last Thursday’s defeat to London Broncos leaving them under threat of relegation, writes Nathan Okell.

Widnes travel to the AJ Bell Stadium as underdogs following the Red Devils’ impressive victory last weekend at Hull KR, with new signing Jackson Hastings the danger man for the Black and Whites.

“Salford are a similar side to London in the fact that they don’t get much yardage,” said Cummins.

“But we have to be better around the ruck and on the floor.

“Our defensive technique has to be better and we have to be more confident. Their tails are wagging at the moment and they played well last week.

“They won the little battles against Hull KR without being spectacular, and we know we have to be better than we were against London.

“Hastings is a strong player who takes some defending against and is one you can’t take any dummies from.

“He puts in lots of dangerous little kicks to force the repeat sets, which gives them another dimension.

“He’s a good recruit for them and we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for him.”

Cummins hopes to be able to call upon the services of a number of key players following their return from injury, with new signing Charlie Gubb being rated 50/50 as to whether he will be fit in time.

“Charlie got a bump to both his knee and ankle which has meant he hasn’t been able to train with the group,” said Cummins.

“There’s a big question mark over whether he’ll play this week, but if he isn’t ready for this week, I fully expect him to play in the next one.

“The way he crawled off the field, it looked like it could have been the end of him for the year, but that doesn’t seem the case so its good news for us.

“He looked like he gave us some good direction going forward and he was one of the players for us who played the ball quick and dominated the play-the-ball.

“Considering it was his first game for a while, I was really impressed.

“Lloyd White trained last week, but obviously it was his first week back in training, and I thought he needed a full week to see how he settled from everything, but he’s come through with flying colours.

“I fully expect Lloyd to be available for selection this week.

“Rhys Hanbury is still in the boot at the moment, so we will only know whether he comes out in time in the next couple of days, but apart from that everybody’s available for selection.”

A Jarrod Sammut drop-goal two minutes from full-time saw Widnes go down 21-20 to Championship side London at Halton Stadium.

As well as the debut to New Zealander Gubb, the former NZ Warriors and Canberra Raiders prop forward who started on the bench, the pack was also bolstered by the return of experienced trio Aaron Heremaia, Chris Houston and Gil Dudson.

Olly Ashall-Bott came in at full-back for the injured Hanbury.

It took until the 31st minute to get the scoreboard ticking when concerted pressure saw Ashall-Bott dive in from close range. Krisnan Inu’s conversion made it 6-0.

Broncos hit back early in the second half with a breakaway try finished off by prop Mark Ioane but Widnes steadied the ship with an Inu penalty.

Vikings seemed to have taken control when Chris Dean ghosted over for a six-pointer to make it 14-4 but London had other ideas.

Daniel Harrison crossed and then Kieran Dixon went over wide out to level the scores at 14-14.

A disastrous looping pass from Liam Finn then gifted Dixon a 70-metre interception try with Sammut converting.

Vikings got themselves back on level terms at 20-20 with five minutes remaining when Inu scrambled over from a Finn cross kick.

But Widnes hearts were broken when Sammut played his joker from 30 metres out.