Betts sees the seasonal joy
WIDNES VIKINGS .......................... 26 WARRINGTON WOLVES ............... 22
BRAGGING may deem a little unseasonal but it’s Widnes fans who will be standing tall locally after they defeated archrivals Warrington Wolves 26-22 in the traditional Festive Derby at the Select Security Stadium.
The final scoreline does not tell the whole story with the Wolves producing a spirited second half fightback in last Friday night’s clash after being outplayed for most of the proceedings and trailing 26-0.
Both sides were missing players who are likely to be first-team regulars when the really serious stuff starts next month, but the Wolves’ line-up had considerably more topflight experience in its ranks.
Widnes boss Denis Betts was delighted to see his team hang on for the win, especially with such an inexperienced side on the park in the latter stages.
He reserved some special praise for full-back and man-of-the-match Olly Ashall who scored two tries in an impressive display.
Betts said: “It’s taken Olly a year to recover from a really bad training ground knee injury.
“The potential has always been there. He’s sharp and he’s got assets to his game which didn’t come through today because of the nature of the game.
“He’s really strong under a high ball, he leaves the ground well, he’s brave and he’s going to give us com- petition for places along with the likes of the Chapelhows, Sam Wilde and Tom Olbison in other spots.
“I thought Jordan Johnstone was really good, Danny Walker gave us a lot when he came on at ‘nine’ with Jordan then fitting in well in the halves.
“Just playing Joey Mellor for 30-odd minutes was always the plan; I lost him in this game last year and didn’t get him back for four months!
“In these games, you want to come through without any injuries. The win’s a real bonus and keeping them to nil at half-time is another one.
“When you look at our side in the second half, we had a number who’ve just finished in the U19s, some who are still in the U19s and a lad who was only 17 two days ago.
“It all speaks well of our youth policy and where we are as a group.”
It was the Vikings who looked the livelier in the opening exchanges and they opened the scoring when the elusive Ashall latched onto an inside ball to cross for a six-pointer.
Warrington’s early forays into Vikings territory were repelled and on 15 minutes a heavy tackle on new Wolves centre Bryson Goodwin saw him led wobbily-legged from the pitch.
Shortly afterwards a midfield melee precipitated by Ben Westwood saw the former England international sin-binned reducing Warrington to 12 men.
Widnes took advantage to double their lead when Ashall chimed in to make the extra man from a scrum move to cross for his second converted try on 19 minutes.
Five minutes before the break, a searing break from that man Ashall set up the position for Stefan Marsh to cross for the Vikings’ third try and that was immediately followed up by teenage winger Owen Buckley leaping high to add another to make it 20-0 at half-time.
Widnes started the second half where they left off and a break by Marsh was the catalyst for right winger Keenan Brand to latch onto a grubber kick for a score converted by Tom Gilmore.
Warrington tried hard to get back into the contest and their endeavours finally paid off on 56 minutes when full-back Jack Johnson muscled his way over with Harvey Livett ading the extras.
Another mini-altercation interrupted proceedings and the Wolves thought they’d pulled another try back but Matty Russell’s touchdown was ruled out for an obstruction.
With 14 minutes left, a bomb from Livett was collected by Wolves’ threequarter Toby King for a legitimate try and when King repeated the dose five minutes later, an unlikely comeback looked on at 26-16.
A further score less than two minutes from time from Wolves youngster Patrick Moran set up a potentially thrilling finale but the Vikings held on.