Widnes Vikings suffered their first Betfred Championship home defeat of the season following a 28-10 defeat at the hands of Oldham at the DCBL stadium.
The visitors struck after just eight minutes as a cross-field kick from Oldham was taken out of the air by Ben Davies, who was simply able to crash over and put his side in-front.
The remainder of the first half was something of an arm wrestle, but Oldham doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time. Jack Walker took the ball 20m out and side-stepped his way through the Widnes defence to score at the foot of the posts.
Allan Coleman’s side made a bright start to the second half when Matty Fozard took the ball from the scrum and dashed to the line to give the Vikings their opening try.
However, Oldham restored their two-score cushion just five minutes later when Ben Hartill took the ball from dummy-half and dashed to the line.
Twelve minutes later, the visitors added another, moving the ball from right to left for Luke Forber to apply a smart finish in the corner.
Widnes did add another try to their tally with less than 20 minutes to go, Danny Richardson’s long pass finding Matt Fleming who was able to beat his defender and dive in at the corner.
Four minutes from time, the visitors made sure of the victory as a deft kick right was taken well by Tom Nisbet, who had space to run into for the try.
Teams and scorers
Widnes Vikings: Connell, Fleming, Taylor, Owens, Ince, Richardson, Gilmore, Murray, Johnstone, J.Chapelhow, Roberts, Wilde, Hall. Interchanges: Fozard, Langtree, McWhirter, Billington.
Tries: Fozard, Fleming
Goals: Richardson
Oldham: Walker, Nisbet, Davies, Bibby, Forber, Smith, Drinkwater, T.Chapelhow, Wildie, Farnworth, Ashurst, Day, Milner. Interchanges: Hartill, Liu, Moore, Lannon.
Tries: Davies, Walker, Hartill, Forber, Nisbet
Goals: Smith (4)
Post-match reaction
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