AARON ENDS DEVILS JINX
Vikings star hits them late
HOOKER Aaron Heremaia helped Widnes end a run of six successive defeats to Salford to climb up to fifth in Super League.
They trailed three times to their bogey team but refused to buckle and struck back with two ruthless late blows.
Greg Burke barged his way over and Krisnan Inu converted to snatch back the lead before Heremaia landed another killer try.
Widnes had started slowly, with the Red Devils in the mood to give them hell in the wake of their surprise win over Hull.
Their blood-and-thunder approach worked wonders and the Vikings were lucky to be only six points adrift in the opening quarter.
Darrell Olpherts was denied a try on his debut when his boot brushed the whitewash a moment before he touched down.
But Craig Kopczak made no mistake after Widnes full-back Rhys Hanbury crucially let a Rob Lui bomb bounce.
Widnes were under the cosh but surprisingly pulled level when Chris Dean stretched over in the 27th minute.
Rain continued to make handling difficult but two Salford penalties from Lui nudged the visitors into a 10-6 half-time lead.
But Salford’s hopes of restarting as strongly as they had in the first half were ruined by a rash challenge by Lama Tasi.
His shoulder charge saw Ted Chapelhow going off for a concussion test and Salford facing a 10-minute spell with 12 men.
Widnes took advantage of his stay in the sin bin by pouncing with a try and goal from Inu.
The two-point lead lasted nine minutes before Lui caused chaos in the Vikings defence with a high kick to the corner.
Five players went up for it but Salford’s Weller Hauraki came away with it and burrowed over.
Lui missed the conversion but then kicked a penalty to restore a short-lived lead of four points.
Burke charged in on the back of a needless penalty by Olpherts with Heremaia putting the seal on it.