WIDNES survived a late Castleford revival to run out 38-28 winners at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

It was breathless stuff in the latter stages as the Tigers, who looked dead and buried trailing by 26 points with twelve minutes remaining, threatened an amazing fightback.

Three touchdowns in the space of five minutes including a hat-trick try to Vikings loanee Paddy Flynn gave the travelling fans the collywobbles but in the end Widnes held out for a deserved win.

Denis Betts men went into the game as underdogs and three late withdrawals didn't help the cause.

Gil Dudson, Setaimata Sa and Chris Houston all dropped out through illness or injury.

Betts drafted in youngsters Jay Chapelhow and Brad Walker who both started from the bench.

Flynn had the first chance of the match but he failed to grasp a difficult Denny Solomona pass.

The Vikings went straight up the other end and skipper Kevin Brown thought he'd opened the scoring but his touchdown was ruled out by the video referee, citing a Charly Runciman knock-on.

However, from the next attack, Widnes managed a legal score when Macgraff Leuluai was first to react after Solomona had fumbled a Brown kick on his own line. Rhys Hanbury's goal made it 6-0.

On 19 minutes Brown and Hanbury linked up in typical fashion to send Patrick Ah Van over at the left corner to make it 10-0.

The Vikings high pressure defence was forcing the home side into errors but they finally got on the scoreboard seven minutes before the break when Solomona fed Flynn and Luke Gale added the extras from wide out.

Just before half-time, Widnes increased their lead when Chris Bridge followed up a Joe Mellor kick to score, making it 14-6 at the break.

It was all the Tigers early in the second period and Flynn's second six-pointer came as no surprise.

But the Vikings responded as Ah Van burrowed in from close range and when Lloyd White tricked his way in from dummy-half, Castleford began to look like a beaten side.

White crossed again when he followed up his own intelligent last-tackle grubber kick and directly from the kick-off Mellor raced 60 metres to the posts to make it 38-12.

It looked an unassailable lead but credit to the Tigers for their never-say-die attitude.

Larne Patrick, Gale and Flynn scored in quick succession to hint at the unlikeliest of comebacks but Widnes found enough composure to hang on to the spoils.

Castleford: Solomona; Monaghan, Crooks, Webster, Flynn; McShane, Gale; Jewitt, Milner, Patrick, Moors, McMeeken, Massey. Subs: Millington, Springer, Tickle, Cook.

Widnes: Hanbury; Thompson, Bridge, Runciman, Ah Van; Mellor, Brown; Cahill, White, Buchanan, Whitley, Dean, Leuluai. Subs: J Chapelhow, Manuokafoa, B Walker, Heremaia.

Referee: J Smith Half-Time: 6-14