We can learn a lot from the cup clash – Whitley
● WIDNES forward Matt Whitley is looking forward to getting the new season underway, and hopes the Vikings can fine tune aspects of their performance before the season opener with Huddersfield Giants two weeks tomorrow.
Whitley started in the Karalius Cup game against St Helens last weekend in the secondrow. He was voted as the supporters’ man-ofthe-match for his usual high energy display in both attack and defence.
With pre-season completed, the 21-year old is firmly focused on the Vikings’ 2017 Betfred Super League campaign, which begins on February 10.
“It’s always nice to pick up the supporters’ man-of-the-match award, and I’m really grateful for that,” he said.
“Obviously I would have preferred for the team to get the win at the weekend.
“The result obviously wasn’t the one that we were looking for and I thought that we were slightly off the mark in attack.
“However, we can definitely take some positives from the weekend, as I thought that we defended really well for much of the game. You can learn a lot from games like that, and we’re really committed to doing so.
“There’s a few things from the St Helens game that we can brush up on before the season starts in a few weeks against Huddersfield. We want to give ourselves the best start in 2017.
“I’m happy that we’ve nearly finished pre-season as it means that the season is almost here. It’s been a long but worthwhile pre-season for all the players and we just can’t wait to get underway.”
Sunday, January 26, 1997 THE ‘Vikings’ took their official bow in a home Challenge Cup-tie against amateurs Clayton, running out convincing winners by 56-2.
The name change came about when 17-year-old Frodsham High School student and Widnes fan, Helen Baxter, chose the club as the topic for her A-level marketing & promotion project.
With the support of club directors, Helen sought a new name in line with the trend of the time and her research took her to the 10th century Danish occupants of the town – and hence ‘Widnes Vikings’ came into being. ● WIDNES VIKINGS: On This Day is available now at £9.99 from the Vikings Superstore. ● ST HELENS .................................. 16 WIDNES VIKINGS ........................ 0
OPINIONS vary on how much Widnes will miss Kevin Brown in the coming season following his move to Warrington.
But it’s tempting to conclude after the Vikings’ uninspiring showing in the 16-0 Karalius Cup defeat at St Helens on Sunday that the answer could be . . . quite a lot.
Widnes rarely looked like opening up the Saints’ defence even when opposition boss Keiron Cunningham had many of his junior products on the field in the second half.
Vikings head coach Denis Betts gave an honest post-match assessment of his team’s display.
He said: “I thought we were poor with the ball. Defensively, I thought we worked pretty hard – but then we had to.
“Two sloppy errors from our two full-backs gave them 12 points and they scored one try from a bit of decent play. Other than that we were really solid. “But we were dull with the ball. “It didn’t look like us at all in training; we just didn’t do anything with the ball.
“It could have been a halfdecent game if the referee doesn’t see a line-ball as forward when Danny Craven scores.
“Overall I’m disappointed and so are the lads – we just lacked some energy. Saints ran pretty hard to try to get over the top of us so it was pretty confrontational. I think that drained our energy so when we did get some ball we were pretty poor.”
Saints had the better of the opening exchanges and went close as Theo Fages chased a kick from half-back partner Matty Smith to the line.
Widnes’s first real opportunity saw full-back Rhys Hanbury brought to ground a yard short on the last tackle.
The first try of the game came Saints’ way when Fages broke through the defensive line before sending Australian centre Ryan Morgan galloping to the posts. Smith’s conversion made it 6-0 on eight minutes.
A Tom Gilmore reverse kick to the posts caused a rare moment of panic in the home defence but prop Jack Buchanan’s chase proved fruitless.
Saints had an Adam Swift try chalked off for a forward pass while a Charly Runciman break