Vikings return to winning ways in Cumbria (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Vikings return to winning ways in Cumbria

1:32pm Thursday 8th July 2010 in

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Whitehaven 4 Widnes Vikings 40.

WIDNES ended a Co-operative Championship losing streak of five games at the Recreation Ground.

Shane Grady and Dave Allen each helped themselves to a brace of touchdowns and a final try tally of seven to one is a fair indication of the Vikings superiority.

It was a wet and miserable Thursday evening in Cumbria and the Vikings line-up had a slightly unfamiliar look.

On the plus side, Thomas Coyle was back in action following his broken arm to add some extra know-how at scrum-half.

An early fracas instigated by the home side suggested they were up for the fight in the most literal sense of the word.

But they only succeeded in gifting field-position to Widnes who took full advantage when Allen capitalised on Coyle's short kick to open the scoring.

Grady doubled the lead with a self-converted score from a smart Lee Doran offload and Paul Cullen's men looked to be cruising when Allen crashed over from close range for his second six-pointer on 22 minutes.

However, the second quarter of the match saw Widnes lapse into series of handling errors when kicking early in the tackle count might have been the more sensible option given the conditions.

It allowed Haven to build some pressure and after several near misses they finally registered through fullback Derry Eilbeck to make it 18-4 at the break.

Having seen the home side go close again early in the second period, Widnes clicked back into gear in impressive style.

Substitute Kirk Netherton dummied his way over from the play-the-ball before Coyle's short ball allowed Doran to dance in from close range.

The Vikings were now fully in command at 28-4 and on 62 minutes Netherton broke away again, this time sending Grady over for his second of the night.

Teenage substitute Danny Craven converted and he was on target again when Doran cleverly tapped a Thackeray cross-kick back into the hands of winger Richard Varkulis for another touchdown.

Widnes: Flynn; Varkulis (1t), Haggerty, Grady (2t,4g), Gardner; Thackeray, Coyle; Gannon, Smith, Heckenberg, Doran (1t), Allen (2t), Gerrard. Subs: Craven (2g), Netherton (1t), Kavanagh, Houghton.