Grady snatches last-gasp win for Vikings (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Grady snatches last-gasp win for Vikings

9:18pm Sunday 11th July 2010 in

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Widnes Vikings 27 Dewsbury Rams 26.

SHANE Grady crashed in for a last-gasp try as Widnes snatched a 27-26 win over Dewsbury Rams at Stobart Stadium Halton.

It looked as though the Vikings had squandered a 23-10 lead when a Dewsbury fightback culminated with centre Alex Bretherton touching down to give his side a 26-23 lead with just a few minutes remaining.

But Widnes regained possession straight from the restart thanks to Matt Gardner.

A few tackles later and Thomas Coyle's long pass found Grady who powerered his way to the line.

It was a dramatic finale to a game during which Widnes were rarely at their best.

After a scrappy start they took the lead on 10 minutes when prop Ben Davies crashed in from close range with Grady converting.

However, that was as good as it got for Paul Cullen's men in the first half as time and agin they failed to find the killer pass in their opponents 20 metre area.

Dewsbury hit back on 23 minutes after a Vikings error had conceded field position.

From the resulting pressure, centre Matthew Fox scored on the overlap.

On 31 minutes with the Vikings pressing, Rams loose-forward Ed Barber intercepted on his own line and handed the ball on to winger Bryn Powell who calmly sent long-striding stand-off Pat Walker galloping to the posts.

Dewsbury's 10-6 half-time lead didn't last long as the Vikings came out after the break looking like they meant business.

Impressive substitute Chris Gerrard broke through and sent the fast supporting Anthony Thackeray scampeing in.

On 52 minutes Gerrard took the solo route as he scythed through the Rams defence to make it 16-10 in Widnes's favour.

Coyle popped over a drop-goal to push his side further ahead and it looked like the Vikings might go on to win comfortably when Mark Smith burrowed over from the play-the ball and Grady's conversion made it 23-10.

There was little more than ten minutes left when Brambani broke clean away from dummy-half to pull six points back.

Two minutes later a Walker chip was latched on to by Fox who strolled in for his second try to make it 23-20.

It was another Walker kick that caused mayhem in the Widnes defence and allowed Bretherton to score what he may well have thought would be the match-winning try for the Rams.

Fortunately for Vikings fans, Grady had other ideas and his late strike brought with it three valuable Co-operative Championship points.

Widnes: Flynn; Varkulis, Gardner, Grady (1t,3g), Gaskell; Thackeray (1t), Coyle (1dg); Gannon, Netherton, Davies (1t), Haggerty, Allen, Doran. Subs: Smith (1t), Gerrard (1t), Kavanagh, Heckenberg.