AS expected Widnes made light work of League 1 outfit Coventry Bears as they ran in 17 tries in a 90-0 win to progress into round six of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.

Danny Craven helped himself to four tries with hat-tricks for Rhys Hanbury and Patrick Ah Van.

Widnes were missing a raft of first-teamers but boss Denis Betts included hooker Lloyd White and winger Ah Van after long injury lay-offs and gave Papua New Guinea international prop Stanton Albert his debut from the bench.

It was one-way traffic from the outset with Hanbury backing up an Alex Gerrard break to score on the first set of the game.

Ah Van celebrated his return to action as Hanbury’s inside pass sent him crashing over and the same combination proved too much for the Bears on eight minutes as the score reached 14-0.

Coventry weren’t helping themselves by turning over possession in their own end and the Vikings punished them as White crossed after Tom Gilmore had done the spadework and Hanbury raced in for his second score following a Danny Craven break.

Craven got on the sheet himself on 22 minutes when he coasted through from 10 metres and Brad Walker’s try on 24 minutes from Macgraff Leuluai’s break made it 26-0.

The Bears enjoyed their best spell of the half and went close following a cross-kick but on 32 minutes it was back to business as usual as White sent Matt Whitley to the line from 20 metres out.

Hanbury’s hat-trick touchdown was followed by Craven’s second on the stroke of half-time to make it 54-0.

Widnes made several substitutions and positional changes for the second half and took a little while to get back in the groove but when they did centre Ed Chamberlain crossed wide on the right on 48 minutes.

Young dummy-half Danny Walker was next to cross as he raced through from 30 metres and Craven went in for his hat-trick from a Walker break.

Craven’s fourth was just around the corner and Ah Van’s hat-trick came after the ball was moved swiftly to the left to make it 80-0.

A Gilmore dummy and break saw him put Jay Chapelhow under the posts.

The possibility of reaching a century of points seemed to make the Vikings a little giddy but they did manage one further touchdown with Ryan Ince crossing to complete the 90-0 romp.

Widnes: Hanbury; Ince, Chamberlain, Runciman, Ah Van; Craven, Gilmore; Gerrard, White, J Chapelhow, Whitley, Wilde, Walker. Subs: Leuluai, D Walker, S Albert, Johnstone.

Coventry: Gant; Carter, Pearce-Paul, Bass, Morley-Samuels; Emanuelli, Stead; Thomas, Williams, Vitalini, Gray, Mason, Hughes. Subs: Rice-Wilson, Kaufman, Beddows, Geurtjens.

Half-time: 54-0

Referee: Mr J McMullen

Attendance: 1,438