4:12pm Monday 21st June 2010
Keighley Cougars 18 Widnes Vikings 48 IT'S 'Blackpool Here We Come' for Widnes fans as they saw their heroes thrash Keighley Cougars 48-18 in the Northern Rail Cup semi-finals at Cougar Park.
The game was a personal triumph for Vikings stand-off Anthony Thackeray who was in irresistible attacking form.
The 25 year-old notched a superb hat-trick of tries and had a hand in several others before being withdrawn from the fray with more than a quarter of the game remaining.
The opening 20 minutes saw both sides probing for weaknesses but Widnes always looked the more threatening.
It was Thackeray who got the scoreboard ticking on 21 minutes when he dummied his way oiver from close range.
He repeated the dose five minutes before half-time and Shane Grady's second conversion made it 12-0.
Widnes may well have settyled for that at the interval but things got even better when Thackeray's pass sent Dave Allen crashing in for another six-pointer with the hooter imminent.
Keighley started the second half brightly but were hit with a hammer blow on 47 minutes.
A Danny Jones chip through was fielded by Thackeray who quickly fed Paddy Flynn.
The pacy fullback scythed through the home defence on an arcing length of the field run which saw him score just tothe right of the posts.
Four minutes later, Thackeray sold a couple of outrageous dummies before sailing away for his hat-trick try to make it 30-0.
Widnes were now in full flow and it came as no surprise when smart work by Matt Gardner got Shaun Ainscough over and Mark Smith backed up for the Vikings seventh try.
There was still 12 minutes remaining when Ben Kavanagh unselfishly offloaded to put substitute Dave Houghton in and at 48-0 the defeat was starting to take on humiliating proportions for the Cougars.
But to their credit the Yorkshiremen didn't throw the towel in.
With player-coach and ex-Vikings scrum-half Barry Eaton pulling the strings, the home side ran in three late tries to give the final score a more respectable hue.
Batley Bulldogs await the Vikings in Blackpool on July 18th.
They will be formidable opponents but on the form they showed on Sunday, Widnes should fear nobody at this level.
Widnes: Flynn (1t); Gaskell, Kohe-Love, Gardner, Ainscough (1t); Thackeray (3t), Smith (1t); Gannon, Netherton, Kavanagh, Grady (8g), Allen (1t), Doran. Subs: Kelly, Varkulis, Gerrard, Houghton (1t).
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