REPORT: WIDNES VIKINGS 40-14 HALIFAX PANTHERS

The Vikings made it 4/4 to start the Championship season with a come-from-behind 40-14 win over Halifax Panthers at the DCBL Stadium.

Allan Coleman’s side blew the visitors away with four tries in 13 minutes to start the second half, which they didn’t look back from as they romped home to a 26-point victory.

The visitors came out the better of the two sides, running into a 10-0 lead thanks to tries from Gareth Widdop and Louis Jouffret.

The Vikings then cut the deficit to six in the shape of Rhodri Lloyd who dotted down after Mike Butt batted back a kick to the corner from Tom Gilmore.

Lloyd thought he was in for a second as he seemingly strolled over unopposed however, referee Ben Thaler adjudged him to have knocked on in the act of scoring.

Halifax then went up the other end to extend their lead as Ben Kavanagh slid over in the corner to put the visitors 14-4 up at the break.

A second-half turnaround for the Vikings was kicked off by Matty Fozard who supported Danny Langtree’s half break to score near the posts.

A walk-in try at the corner for Ryan Ince drew us level before Danny Langtree latched onto a kick from Tom Gilmore to score and put the Vikings 20-14 up.

Allan Coleman’s side continued in similar fashion as they scored a potential try-of-the-season contender.

Ant Walker first offloaded to Tom Gilmore in the middle of the field. He then picked out Langtree who set Ryan Ince away to kick inside for Jack Owens to collect and score.

The Vikings had gone from 10 points down to 12 points ahead in just 13 second-half minutes.

Tom Gilmore extended the lead to three scores with a penalty just past the hour mark before Jack Owens and Rhodri Lloyd both crossed to grab their second tries and seal a remarkable 40-14 win for the Vikings.

We turn our attention to a trip to the Millennium Stadium as we take on last season’s league leaders Featherstone Rovers next Sunday (3pm).

COACHES COMMENTS

Head Coach Allan Coleman said: “At half-time we weren’t happy but we’d had a lot of possession and just didn’t execute well enough.

“We had a lot of intensity to start that second half, we’d spoken about going out and believing in each other, going at them 100mph and defending as though our lives depended on it.

“It was vital to keep them scoreless in the second half, we want to be a team that doesn’t concede more than three tries and that is really difficult to do in this competition.

“We set a target of us being better and that means us both attacking better and defending better. I thought we were superb second half.”