WOEFUL Warrington Wolves saw their hopes of finishing top of the table all but disappear as they crashed to a shock 6-16 home defeat to 12 man Widnes.
While Widnes deserved their win after playing the entire second half with only 12 men after Hep Cahill saw red for a high shot on Brett Hodgson just before half time – Warrington were completely out of sorts dropping the ball on numerous occasions.
Widnes completed a rare league double while at the same time ending Warrington’s nine-match winning run in Super League.
With a steady drizzle making playing conditions difficult for the normally free flowing Wolves they still managed to take the lead when Simon Grix (pictured top) grabbed the 50th try of his career after 15 minutes, finishing off a nicely-worked move down the left to break the deadlock.
Widnes suffered a further blow when they lost Grant Gore to injury, the youngster’s first Super League start ending with him sadly being stretchered off with a serious-looking knee injury.
Some last-ditch defending denied Joel Monaghan from grounding the ball and then the impressive Jack Owens got his opening try of the night, impressively gathering in Kevin Brown’s beautifully-weighted kick over the head of Chris Riley.
A missed conversion left the Wolves still with their noses in front at the break and with Cahill being shown a straight red by referee Phil Bentham for flattening Hodgson, Warrington must have fancied their chances against a Widnes team with just two wins from their previous 11 outings and conceded 114 points in their last two matches!
But Warrington were their own worst enemy as they continued to surrender possession time and time again.
Patrick Ah Van put the visitors in front for the first time when he scampered in at the left corner.
Owens then crossed on the other flank just six minutes later, Joe Mellor adding both conversions from tough positions to open up a 10-point gap with around a quarter of the game remaining.
In the grand scheme of things if Warrington bounce back and go on to win the Grand Final, the game will be consigned to the history books – but with tough away games at St Helens and Catalans still to come Head of Coaching Tony Smith will be looking for his side to bounce back to form in time for the end of season play offs.
Wolves:
1. Brett Hodgson 2. Chris Riley 3. Chris Bridge 15. Simon Grix 5. Joel Monaghan 19. Stefan Ratchford 9. Michael Monaghan 16. Paul Wood 14. Mick Higham 18. Chris Hill 11. Trent Waterhouse 12. Ben Westwood 21. Tyrone McCarthy
Substitutes:
13. Ben Harrison 17. Michael Cooper 25. Brad Dwyer 26. James Laithwaite
Widnes:
7. Rhys Hanbury 26. Jack Owens 3. Cameron Phelps 11. Frank Winterstein 5. Patrick Ah Van 6. Kevin Brown 14. Joe Mellor 16. Eamon O’Carroll 27. Grant Gore 17. Ben Kavanagh 12. David Allen 24. Macgraff Leuluai 13. Hep Cahill
Substitues:
23. Phil Joseph 29. Adam Lawton 2. Willie Isa 21. Danny Craven
2 Comments
I dearly hope that they have a ball playing forward and a creative half back to unveil before the start of next season -because there is no one – not just last night – who can create something or properly offload. They have not looked interested the last few matches and there is no leadership evident on the field. When our forwards are not on top of the opposition no one has a plan B.
It always puzzles me why players are rewarded with contract extensions before the business end of the season – this is the thanks we get!