Dropped ball count so costly for the Vikings

THE Vikings suffered defeat on a windy Monday in Newcastle, with Thunder running out 12-6 winners.

Widnes made four changes to their matchday 17 from last time out at York, as new loan recruits Danny Addy and Jack Wells came in as well as Jake Spedding and Lloyd Roby in the places of the injured Aaron Brown and Tyler Dupree, with Liam Bent and Joe Edge also missing out.

It was a tight opening to the game, Newcastle seeing the better off the opening exchanges with Widnes having to absorb the majority of the early pressure.

The hosts got the scoring underway on 19 minutes when Sam Halsall found space out wide after a knock-on from the Vikings put them under pressure, and the centre got in despite a last-ditch tackle attempt from Ryan Ince.

Widnes stood firm for the remainder of the first half under sustained Thunder pressure, with the score 4-0 going into half time.

Gideon Boafo got in not long after the break, finding a gap on the right wing to double Newcastle’s lead before Thunder converted.

Jake Spedding limped off after a pause in play shortly before the hour mark, with a slight reshuffle forced upon the Vikings.

Widnes pulled one back with ten minutes to go, Adam Lawton with a strong carry to get across. Ste Tyrer converted to pull the Vikings back within a score.

However, the hosts got a penalty 20 out and took the two points with Jake Shorrocks putting it through the posts to extend Thunder’s lead to six and round off the scores.

Coach Simon Finnigan said: “Parts of the performance were very good and parts of it were very poor – our completion rate averaged at fifty per cent, max. First half was fifty six per cent, second half below fifty per cent so you are never really going to be in a game when you complete at that rate.

“We had no right to be in the game by half time given the amount of ball we dropped but what was pleasing was the way we defended.

“I have questioned our intent and our want to defend in recent weeks but that wasn’t the case on the night, there was an aggression about us, we wanted to get off the line and we worked really hard – we had to because of the amount of ball we dropped. We defended tough and got stuck in, which was a huge plus because we’ve done a lot of work on it.

“The lads bought into that and applied it on the night – but we didn’t win, which is disappointing, because of the amount of ball we dropped.

“Every different area you can make an error we made it on the night.”

Nesxt up for the Vikings is the home game against Leigh Centurions on April 15th.*