To rue late try woe
verting the score.
With stand-off Chris Bridge well to the fore, the Vikings began to stretch the visitors’ defence and they levelled things up when Lloyd White picked up a Bridge offload to cross for a six-pointer.
On 28 minutes, Widnes took the lead when scrum-half Danny Craven’s pace off the mark saw him ghost through for a fine individual try with Rhys Hanbury adding his second conversion.
The Warriors hit back with a disputed score after Escare appeared to knock-on as he collected his own chip ahead but with referee James Child rulling ‘play on’, Escare found Gildart who finished powerfully under the posts.
However, it was the Vikings who took a lead into the break when impressive centre Tom Armstrong showed an admirably cool head as he pounced on a White grubber kick which rebounded off an upright.
At 18-12 up, Widnes started the second period strongly as they forced Wigan into errors.
White hit left winger Stefan Marsh with a flat pass which was right on the money and allowed the former Wigan man to extend the Vikings’ lead to 22-12.
When Hanbury landed a couple of penalty goals to stretch his team’s advantage further, Widnes looked set fair but the Warriors had their own agenda.
A George Williams cut-out pass outflanked the home defence with Burgess finishing at the flag and on the opposite flank Lewis Tierney squeezed in to make it 26-20.
The Vikings were wobbling and Burgess narrowed the gap to two points as he got on the end of another overlap.
And Widnes supporters’ hearts were ultimately broken by Gildart’s late score. ●