ON the plus side, Widnes welcomed back long term injury absentees Joe Mellor and Alex Gerrard for the game against Wakefield Trinity on Friday night.

Sadly, that wasn't enough to coax a quality performance out of Denis Betts' men who went down 30-4 at the Beaumont Legal Stadium to drop to the bottom of the Betfred Super League table.

After the heroics of the previous week at Leigh, the Vikings couldn't find the same inspiration against a committed and confident Wakefield outfit.

It culminated in a second half during which Widnes rarely visited the opposition half.

Trinity were quick out of the blocks and scored first when centre Bill Tupou hit a flat ball and used his power to touch down out wide.

It became 8-0 on fifteen minutes when quick hands fred flying winger Tom Johnstone who had a clear run to the line.

Widnes had barely got started as an attacking threat but they hit back when Tom Gilmore's perfectly weighted grubber-kick to the in-goal was pounced on by winger Corey Thompson to make it 8-4.

The Vikings missed a couple of half chances as Gilmore and Ted Chapelhow went close but it was the home side that increased their lead when Johnstone leapt high to catch a bomb and offloaded for substitute Dean Hadley to cross.

Fortunately, from a Vikings perspective, Trinity stand-off Sam Williams missed his third conversion to leave the half-time score at 12-4.

The early stages of the second half saw both teams making handling errors but Trinity finally got their act together when the speedy Johnstone flew up the left flank and passed inside for fullback Scott Grix to cross. Liam Finn took over the goalkicking and added the extras to make it 18-4.

Widnes were struggling to establish any field position at the Wakefield end and the home side capitalised again as Hadley went in for his second try courtesy of a David Fifita pass.

When forward Craig Huby barged in for a soft try to make it 30-4 the game was well and truly up.

Widnes blustered in the latter stages and Chris Houston had a try diallowed following a Mellor kick but in truth they were thoroughly second best on the night.

Back to the drawing board.

Wakefield: Grix; Jones-Bishop, Arundel, Tupou, Johnstone; Williams, Finn; Allgood, Wood, Fifita, Ashurst, Kirmond, Arona. Miller, Huby, Hadley, Hirst.

Widnes: Hanbury; Thompson, Bridge, Runciman, Armstrong; Craven, Gilmore; J Chapelhow, Johnstone, Dudson, Olbison, Whitley, Houston. Subs: Mellor, Gerrard, Manokafoa, T Chapelhow.

Half-Time: 12-4 Referee: C Kendall