REPORT: BRADFORD BULLS 12-26 WIDNES VIKINGS

The Vikings booked their place in the fifth round of the Challenge Cup with a disciplined 26-12 win against Bradford Bulls at Odsal Stadium.

Allan Coleman’s side ran in four tries to extend our winning run to three games, on a day when Callum Field made his 100th career appearance.

Tom Gilmore, who was perfect from the boot, put us 2-0 up with an early penalty.

The hosts then bounced back with a try from Kieran Gill to take a 6-2 lead. More pressure then mounted on the Vikings as Fleming was sent to the bin for a tackle off the ball but a brilliant defensive effort held Bradford at bay.

With Fleming back from the bin, we re-took the lead after Joe Lyons latched on to a fantastic reverse kick from Tom Gilmore to put us up 8-6 at the interval.

The Vikings started the second half in similar fashion as Lloyd Roby this time collected a Gilmore kick to extend our lead to eight points.

Another sin bin for the Vikings, this time to Lloyd Roby allowed Bradford to build pressure which eventually told, as Jowitt collected his own kick to score under the posts and cut our advantage to 2 points.

However, a barging effort from Sam Wilde restored our eight-point advantage before Joe Edge sealed the win to take the final score to 26-12 in the Vikings’ favour.

We will now host Batley Bulldogs in the Challenge Cup fifth round, with the tie set to be played on the weekend of 9/10 March.

COACHES COMMENTS

Head Coach Allan Coleman said: “I’m really happy with the lads today, we’ve trained well all week and we knew we were facing a top Championship team in Bradford, it’s always a difficult place to come but we brought an energy that we knew what we had to do.

“I know what we’re capable of and these players know. We have set a standard there today and we have got to stick to that standard, nothing else is acceptable.

“It’s all effort-based for me and that showed from the team today, that’s what I expect.

“To go down to 12 men, not once but twice, the way we responded was fantastic, you could see the effort and the way everybody was scrambling. I just thought they were absolutely superb today.”