PICTURES EDDIE WHITHAM
WARRINGTON Wolves secured their first away win of the season with a hard earned 10-19 victory at derby rivals Widnes, leaving their near neighbours rooted to the bottom of the table.
The Wolves looked in control with three first half tries from Tom Lineham, Jack Hughes and Joe Philbin, with Dec Patton adding two conversions and a drop goal to make it 4-17 at the break.
But they were made to battle all the way by Widnes in a tight second half with the home side scoring the only try of the half on 59 minutes from Charly Runciman who went over in the corner after a pinpoint kick from former Wire Chris Bridge, who also landed the conversion.
But Warrington hung on despite only being able to add further points with a Dec Patton penalty in the closing stages.
It was the hosts who got off to a flying start after a mistake by Russell allowed Stefan Marsh to score out wide early on.
A flurry of penalties conceded by Widnes allowed Warrington to turn the game around by the 15th minute though.
Chris Houston was guilty twice of resetting the tackle count for the first, which saw Tom Lineham cross on the left.
Such was Widnes’ ill discipline that they were handed a team warning in the build-up to Warrington’s second try. The pressure was built when Kurt Gidley contested a high bomb and forced a Widnes error, and then Marsh was penalised for tackling Russell in the air.
Eventually, after some sustained pressure, Jack Hughes carried a couple of tacklers over the line and the Wolves were 10-4 to the good.
It was a scrappy affair littered with handling errors, and it was ultimately a handling error that denied Warrington a third try, as Ryan Atkins lost the ball in the act of scoring for a would-be try that was waved off by the video referee.
The video referee did eventually award a third Warrington try and it wasn’t without controversy, as Joe Philbin looked to have landed just short of the line, but he was given the benefit of the doubt and Declan Patton added the extras.
Patton knocked a drop goal over shortly before the half and Widnes had all the work to do at 4-17 down at half time.
The home side did come out fighting but were largely toothless in attack. It took them until shortly before the hour mark to create anything of note, the returning Chris Dean sent through a gap by Joe Mellor only for the return ball to be called forward.
A Warrington error off the resulting scrum then set the field position for the second Widnes try, which came when Runciman got on the end of Chris Bridge’s stab kick through on the last.
Despite that encouragement, Widnes never really looked like getting back in to the game, and their woes were perhaps best summed up by Harvey Livett managing to avoid conceding a drop out despite being dragged back by four Vikings defenders.
Time was well and truly against the hosts, and Patton put a penalty over three minutes from time to make sure and earn Warrington a fifth point from six ahead of Monday’s visit of out-of-sorts Huddersfield.
Widnes: Hanbury, Armstrong, Bridge, Runciman, Marsh, Mellor, Craven, Dudson, Johnstone, J. Chapelhow, Houston, Whitley, Brooks. Subs: Dean, Gerrard, Olbison, Burke.
Warrington: Ratchford, Russell, T. King, Atkins, Lineham, Patton, Gidley, Hill, Dwyer, Sims, Jullien, Hughes, G. King. Subs: Evans, Savelio, Philbin, Livett.
Tough game, but glad we got the win to kick of this Easter period. now onto Huddersfield ! Fans again in numbers were awesome 👏🏻@wolvesrl
— George King (@georgeking9876) April 13, 2017
You get to meet all sorts in this line of work. #HereForYou pic.twitter.com/WAsvLalKOB
— Warrington Police (@PoliceWarr) April 13, 2017
Good win tonight. #wegoagain 🔶🔷
— Dec Patton (@DecPatton7) April 13, 2017
Good win tonight with a few injuries recovery mode now ready to go again Monday 🤘🏾💙💛 are fans we’re unbelievable again #wire @wolvesrl
— Joe Philbin (@philbss) April 13, 2017
Yeah they boys. Big win for us going into the Easter break🔥👌🏻 onto monday’s game now😝#hardwired
— Harvey Livett (@Harvey_Livett) April 13, 2017
Good win for us tonight I thought my man @philbss had a big game #wire 🏉
— Daryl Clark (@Darylclark9) April 13, 2017
TS ‘We were without a few first team players tonight. We lost Russell and Atkins tonight with head knocks, and both will be out of Monday’.
— Warrington Wolves (@wolvesrl) April 13, 2017
TS ‘The next few weeks are crucial to our season. We need to keep pushing up the league now’
— Warrington Wolves (@wolvesrl) April 13, 2017