Barrow Raiders 14 Widnes Vikings 32 (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Barrow Raiders 14 Widnes Vikings 32

11:17am Friday 20th August 2010 in

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RICHARD Varkulis charged over for a hat-trick of tries as Widnes cemented fifth place in the Co-operative Championship with a 32-14 win at Barrow.

It was another impressive performance by the Vikings with the home side scoring a couple of late tries to give the final scoreline an air of respectability.

Barrow started in feisty mood and fluffed a couple of early chances.

Lee Doran and Raiders prop Brett McDermott found themselves in the sin-bin after an altercation but it was the Vikings who opened the scoring on 20 minutes.

A long pass from Mark Smith allowed Kurt Haggerty to break free and he side-stepped ex-Widnes stopper Gary Broadbent to score.

Varkulis opened his account on 25 minutes, bulldozing his way over after fine work by Steve Pickersgill and Mark Smith.

Just two minutes later the big centre was in again after Broadbent failed to deal with a Danny Craven bomb and presented Varkulis with a clear run to the line.

The Vikings could have gone further ahead but bombed a couple of gilt-edged chances to leave the interval score at 16-0.

Barrow enjoyed some early second half pressure but failed to capitalise and they were hit by a sucker-punch on 47 minutes when Anthony Thackeray dummied his way over from close range.

Haggerty converted to make it 22-0 and Varkulis completed his hat-trick three minutes later after backing up a Thackeray break.

Winger Andy Ballard got on the end of an overlap to finally get Barrow on the board but it proved to be brief respite for the Cumbrian outfit as Paddy Flynn sailed in for Widnes from Chris Gerrard's sharp pass.

At 30-4 with less than ten minutes remaining, it appeared the Vikings felt they had done enough.

Barrow threw the ball about in desperate fashion and managed a couple of consolation scores through Jamie Rooney and Ballard.

But fittingly it was Widnes who had the final say when Craven chipped over a penalty goal after the hooter.

Widnes: Craven (1g); Gaskell, Gardner, Varkulis (3t), Flynn (1t); Gerrard, Thackeray (1t,1g); Gannon, Smith, Heckenberg, Doran, Haggerty (1t,2g), Kavanagh. Subs: Houghton, Pickersgill, Kelly, Coyle.