Whitehaven 4, Widnes Vikings 40

Whitehaven’s season continues to go downhill and the battle to stay in the Co-operative Championship might not even go down town to the late relegation deciders.

Haven are due to meet both Dewsbury an Keihley, their rivals in distress, over the closing weeks of the season but the verdict on who goes down may already have been delivered.

Another home defeat, and a heavy one at that, against a team who hadn’t won a League game since late April, just underlined the problems which abound at the Recreation Ground.

Whitehaven just haven’t enough quality in the ranks at the moment to give them a chance of staving off the seemingly inevitable.

In the main they can’t be faulted for effort, even though they were forced into late changes, but there’s no substitute for class and Whitehaven don’t possess it.

It didn’t help that Haven had to make changes before the start after Kiwi Motu Tony was injured in the warm-up.

It meant a late change which brought in teenage prop Danny Bower for a debut off the bench and he typified the spirit that exits in the squad with a whole-hearted effort. That was also true of teenage winger Loz Hamzat who made a highly promising first appearance.

But Widnes had far too much where it mattered and were able to build on an eighth minute score. Scrum-half Thomas Coyle put in a kick which was followed-up by Dave Allen and he scored. Shane Grady landed the conversion. 

Allen had a hand in the second try with a strong run which produced a penalty via Derry Eilbeck’s tackle offence and Lee Doran set –up Grady with a brilliant pass.

Allen scored his second try after 20 minutes when he jinked his way past some rather feckless tackling to score. 

Hamzat could have scored a debut try but was bundled into touch and in a spell before half-time Haven were at their most dangerous. Scott McAvoy forced a dropout and good work from Craig Calvert prompted another.

This time Whitehaven were rewarded with a try in the corner by Eilbeck.

Widnes raised the tempo again after the break and Kirk Netherton broke clear from dummy-half to score, while Doran punished Haven for some weak tackling by scoring the next.

Hamzat was unlucky not to score in the corner but Widnes continued to mskethe most of heir opportunities.
Netherton roared past the Whitehaven defence to set-up another try for Grady and this time Danny Craven’s put over the conversion.

The visitors scored their next try on 65 minutes when Doran palmed back Anthony Thackeray’s cross-field kick and Richard Varkulis touched down.

Haven: Eilbeck, Hamzat, R Jackson, McAvoy, Calvert, Rudd, Joe, Amor, Mattinson, Johnson, Hill, D Miller, Barker. Subs (all used): Smith, Thornley, Bibb, Bower.

Widnes: Flynn, Gardner, Grady, Haggerty, Varkulis, Thackeray, Coyle, Heckenberg, Smith, Gannon, Doran, Allen, Gerard. Subs (all used): Kavanagh, Houghton, Netherton, Craven.

Attendance: 1,518

Referee: Rob Hicks

Star Man: Kyle Amor

Our man at the Recreation Ground was MAL WALKER who snapped Derry Eilbeck scoring the Whitehaven try and Kyle Amor on the charge.

Mal's prints can can be bought at £25 for an A4 framed and £40 for an A3 framed. Prints only are £10 A4 and £15 A3. 

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