Widnes Vikings head coach John Kear says he was pleased with some aspects of his side’s pre-season victory against Oldham, but has warned his players to avoid complacency.
The Vikings were forced to come from behind at half-time to maintain their 100% winning start to pre-season with a 42-20 win at the Vestacare Stadium.
Adam Lawton starred in the second half with a hat-trick, while Matty Fozard and Olly Davies also got in on the act.
“Really we’ve seen the menu for a successful rugby league team,” Kear said post-match.
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“The unsuccessful is to make errors, give penalties away. I think the penalty count at half-time was 5-1, and in the second half we flipped it completely on its head.
“We dominated possession simply because we turned our discipline around.
“It’s credit to them, because they’ve had a different challenge this week to what they had last week, and thankfully they’ve come through it.”
Despite the result, Kear admits his players allowed their standards to drop in the first half after Ollie Brookes had opened the scoring for the Vikings early on.
“I think they thought ‘we can strut about and not really put the work in’.
“It doesn’t matter who you play, you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and work. Thankfully that lesson has been learnt so it will help us in our development going forward.”
During the match, the Vikings lost Brookes to injury early in the first half, while centre Max Roberts limped from the field during the second 40.
Kear is already without half-back Danny Craven, who he admits will be “touch-and-go” to feature in the Vikings’ Round 1 opener at York RLFC Knights due to a hamstring complaint.
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On the extent of the injuries suffered on Sunday, he said: “It’s too early to say. Ollie limped off with his hamstring and was a bit down in the dumps about that because he’s suffered with that problem prior to this season.
“Max Roberts, I think he’s just rolled his ankle.
“The first game is only two weeks away. He certainly won’t be playing in the last trial game, and we’ll have to see how he is [for Round 1].
“It’s unfortunate for Max, because he’s had two really good games.”
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Featured photo credit: RLPIX
