Barrow Raiders 38 Widnes Vikings 0 (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Barrow Raiders 38 Widnes Vikings 0

in Vikings Match Reports

WIDNES went into the Co-operative Championship play-offs with high hopes having finished the regular season with four consecutive wins.

But those hopes were utterly dashed as they went down 38-0 against a Barrow Raiders side they had comprehensively beaten just a few weeks earlier.

It would be fair to say the Vikings were badly disrupted by first-half injuries to fullback Danny Craven and winger Scott Yates which caused a major reshuffle.

However, even before the injuries one had the impression the Cumbrian side was far more up for it than Widnes.

Dave Clark's men hit hard in the tackle and showed a lot more vigour going forward and it was a surprise that it took them 16 minutes to establish a lead.

It cam when Ned Catic crashed over from a James Coyle short ball with Jamie Rooney adding the extras.

The Vikings just couldn't establish a foothold in Barrow territory and went further behind when Liam Harrison crashed over from close range.

Six minutes before the break, the home side increased their lead to 18-0 when prop Brett McDermott sent substitute Liam Campbell scampeing to the posts.

A series of penalties gifted Widnes field position early in the second half but their attempts at breaking through the Barrtow line smacked of desperation and lacked co-ordination.

Instead it was the Raiders who increased their lead when ex-Viking Coyle sneaked over from dummy-half.

Although there was still more than half an hour left to play at that stage, Widnes were down and out.

Anthony Thackeray and Paddy Flynn did their best to provide some spark but nothing was going right and the ball frequently passed into Barrow hands all too easily.

Inevitably the Raiders increased capitalised with further scores from Andy Ballard, Harrison and Campbell.

On this showing Barrow will fancy their chances of retaining the Co-operative Championship crown they won so impressively last season.

Widnes and their faithful followers can now look forward to a hopefully more successful campaign in 2011.

Widnes: Craven; Flynn, Varkulis, Gardner, Yates; Thackeray, Coyle; Pickersgill, Smith, Heckenberg, Doran, Haggerty, Gerrard. Subs: Kavanagh, Netherton, Houghton, Kelly.