WIDNES’ away day blues continued after a brave effort in a ding-dong battle at Langtree Park.

Vikings had to do plenty of first half tackling when they kept the champions at bay in a nip-and-tuck first half and that ultimately drained their tank at the back end of the game when the score ran away from them.

It started so well from Vikings with on song skipper Kevin Brown showing and going on 25 minutes, with Jack Owens slotting th econversion.

Saints struck back three minutes later when Luke Walsh snaffled a 40 metre interception try and then not long afterwards the Australian linchpin, starting his first game since July, teed up the ball for his compatriot Travis Burns to storm over the line.

However, Vikings – with Brown calling the shots with the full range of deft short passes, long balls and varied kicking game – stayed in the game and posted an equalising try just before the break.

Interchange hooker Aaron Heremaia found a chink in the Saints midfield armour and he zipped through before finding Joe Mellor in support on the inside with the Vikings number seven doing the rest.

Owens’ conversion made it 12-12 at the break.

But they fell behind after the restart when Walsh’s short pass sent Alex Walmsley on a driving run over the whitewash, with Burns slotting his third goal.

But back again came Vikings and Brown’s exquisite pass sent promising teenage back row Matt Whitley on a surging run to the line, only to be foiled by a wonderful Makinson tackle.

In a repeat move Brown again sent Whitley on a storming run – with no stopping him this time.

Jack Owens missed the touchline conversion and that was as close as Widnes got.

The last quarter saw Saints get a complete stranglehold on the game with Makinson’s break setting up the position for the game-breaking score. After dashing through the middle the ball was fanned right where Percival’s fine pass sent Matty Fleming dashing in at the corner.

With Vikings showing signs of fatigue from their monumental first half tackling stint Saints began to exploit the extra space.

Makinson capped a fine all round game and effectively wrapped it up when he returned a kick with interest, racing the length of the field to score under the posts to delight the crowd.

And two minutes before the end Saints gave the score an even more lop-sided look when Percival dashed over following a Vikings error.