WIDNES Vikings face arguably the toughest of Easter double-headers kicking off at Warrington on Good Friday (3pm) before entertaining leaders St Helens on Easter Monday (3.05pm).

And Vikings boss Denis Betts has declared that he won’t be playing games with selection – saying he will pick his strongest team for the Wolves game and seeing what bodies he has available from there.

He expects it to be tough, with Warrington finding a bit of form of late.

Betts said: “Warrington have got some fantastic players and it is going to be a big ask for us.

“But we have the challenge of a local derby; there have been some tussles over the years and we have been on the wrong side of most of them.

“They are tough games but we don’t take a step back and are never the shrinking violets of the partnership.

“We don’t want to be seen as the little cousins of the area and want to have a go.”

In terms of injuries Vikings will be without second row Matt Whitley for four to five weeks after he picked up a knee injury 25 minutes into the Salford game.

Betts said: “It will be tough on him as he has not had to cope with an injury like that before so far in his career.

“He is a loss to us as well because he has been playing well.”

In his place former Wolves player Sam Wilde will slot into the team.

“Sam has been dying for a start in the back row, and he will be looking forward to playing against Warrington.”

Vikings will also be without Hep Cahill has sustained a knee injury in training and is in a brace, and expected to be out for five to six weeks.

Gil Dudson, Alex Gerrard, Macgraff Leuluai and Stanton Albert are all in the mix for a return over the weekend, the latter two after games for North Wales, but Betts wanted to avoid them all playing together due to their lack of match fitness.

Betts was happy that his side go into this weekend on the back of a late win against Salford.

He said: “I’m really pleased with the points.

“We won the game on the back of resilience.

“We aren’t a big side at the moment as we have a lot of guys on the sidelines and they are a big team and we got through it.

“Resilience is built on environment and culture. It was just about us sticking in the fight and defending our line.

“Every win is crucial - to Salford and us. We wanted to hit Easter with a 50 per cent record.

“I thought if we could get to that weekend, with a massive local derby in the mix, with a 50 per cent record then we would still be on target."