Back to winning ways

Widnes started the game the brighter of the two sides and enjoyed good spells of early possession in the away sides half for the opening 10 minutes. However Holmes Chapel struck first after a mistake and penalty, to go over from close range and take a 7 - 0 lead.

However the home side were straight back into the ascendency and were level shortly after as James Owen on the end of a flowing move to dive over, with scrum half Alex Jones adding the tricky extras from out wide.

The Seconds would then take the lead as some good forward play once again found them camped in the Chapel 22. After some sustained pressure the ball would go out wide to Owen again who rode a tackle and got a offload away to Matty Walker who dummied his way over in the corner.

The determined away side would however have the last say in a very even opening 40 minutes to level the scores with the final play of the half leaving things nicely poised at 12 - 12 at the break.

An evenly matched encounter continued until the seconds final broke the Chapel line. Arnie Haydock burrowing over from close range after some good work from the Widnes outside backs.

Once again though the away side would come back fighting an take the lead going over out wide and adding a difficult conversion to lead 19 - 17 going into the final 10 minutes.

The Seconds fighting spirit would prevail though as man of the match James Owen grabbed his second of the afternoon, as a Ste Curphey kick was charged down for Owen to race 30 metres to go over in the corner. Jones again on target with the boot to push the Wids to a 24 - 19 lead with six minutes remaining.

Those minutes were spent with Chapel camped on the Widnes line as the determined away sides tried time and time again to breach the defence. A succession of penalties and players been held up over the line ended with Josh Salter and Joe Galloway getting underneath a Chapel player to hold him up over the line and give them a superb victory.

Backs coach Dan Newall said after the game.

“That was such a tough game for the lads to play in today. It was a very physical game and our forwards really stood up to the challenge. James Owen picked up man of the match in his first game at centre, Matty Walker had another great game and our bench come on a made a real impact to change things in our favour. We didn’t make things easy for ourselves at times though the penalty count was still too high and technically we still have a lot to work on. However the effort 1 - 18 was unbelievable today, defensively we were outstanding, that final few minutes was superb from us, to come back from behind and then to keep them out the boys deserve a lot of credit for that. We will have learnt a heck of a lot from today and will take that on to another tough one next week at Helsby.”