Widnes Vikings 22 Barrow Raiders 20 (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Widnes Vikings 22 Barrow Raiders 20

9:27pm Monday 15th February 2010 in Vikings news

TWO tries in the last three minutes saw the Vikings snatch the spoils 22-20 in a dramatic Northern Rail Cup tie against Barrow.

Widnes looked down and out at 20-12 down and time running out.

But substitute Thomas Coyle ghosted through from a scrum to give the Vikings a sniff of a chance and didn't disappoint.

With the visitors wishing the time away, Paul Cullen's men launched a final assault.

Superb handling saw Shane Grady stopped short on the left but from the next play the ball was kept alive in desperate fashion.

Toa Kohe-Love beat one man with a side-step and fed wing partner Shaun Ainscough who dived over for an amazing match-clinching effort.

It sent the Stobart Stadium crowd wild with delight and the hooter sounded almost immediately.

Widnes had been second best in a first half which saw the visitors take an 18-6 lead into the interval with tries from James Nixon, Liam Harrison and Nathan Mossop.

Liam Farrell scored the Vikings only touchdown of the opening 40 minutes.

A Jamie Rooney penalty pushed the Raiders out to a 20-6 lead before Dave Houghton crashed in on 61 minutes to pull six points back.

A 73rd minute fracas saw Ben Kavanagh sent off for Widnes and Rob Roberts sin-binned for Barrow.

And in the game of 12-a-side which followed, Widnes pulled the fat out of the fire.

Widnes: Ford; Ainscough (1t), Kohe-Love, Grady (3g), Gardner; Thackery, Webster; Haggerty, Smith, Gannon, Farrell (1t), Kavanagh, Gerrard. Subs: Coyle (1t), Varkulis, Strong, Houghton (1t).