Widnes 12 Saints 40 (From Warrington Guardian)

Widnes 12 Saints 40

SAINTS refused to let the controversy surrounding Sean Long and Martin Gleeson affect them, overcoming the banned duo's absence to see off their near neighbours with a clinical seven try display.

Coach Ian Millward was forced to make several adjustments to his side, with versatile back rower Lee Gilmour taking Gleeson's centre spot, Paul Wellens moving up to Long's scrum half berth and Darren Albert dropping down to full back.

Understandably, it did not all run smoothly with Wellens taking time to retrace the rusty half back steps of his teen years, although there was no lack of effort there in support play and defence.

Long is a massive loss, but the big players like Paul Sculthorpe and Keiron Cunningham raised their game to make sure they did their bit to compensate - also giving plenty of direction.

Sculthorpe, despite suffering the ill effects of flu all week and having the additional pressure of being the only tactical kicker on board, pushed Saints around the field well.

And once again Saints' forwards rose to the physical challenge well. Widnes' big, bruising, experienced packmen came off a poor second to a Saints six led again by the fearless charges of Nick Fozzard.

With good support from fellow props Keith Mason and Mark Edmondson, Saints pack soon got on top in the middle. Once that happened it was game over for homesters and their noisy fans, who had been armed with 'thundersticks' especially for the occasion.

The game was locked at a scoreless stalemate for 16 minutes until Gilmour nipped over for a try, despite home protestations that he had never grounded the ball.

The build up to that had been typical of Saints, with Jason Hooper sniffing out a loose ball to race 70 metres before being halted by the covering Aaron Moule.

Fozzard and Sculthorpe then combined to allow Jon Wilkin to flick an audacious pass out to Gilmour, who crossed despite the efforts of Deon Bird and Craig Weston.

Saints then hit their hosts with a sucker punch, with Cunningham weaving his way through from dummy half before sending the supporting Wellens through.

He drew the full back to send Darren Albert racing in.

Millward's men seemed determined to polish off their hosts as quickly as possible and Chris Joynt floated a great pass wide for Willie Talau to go over, but the big Kiwi international failed to ground it correctly.

Still Saints simply kept pressing and Cunningham, back to his best in his testimonial year, then chose route one to bulldoze his way over from dummy half on the half hour mark.

The one-way traffic was reversed one minute before the break when Moule released the ball from a two-man tackle to send former Saints academy player Steve Rowlands in at the corner.

Jules O'Neill flighted a magnificent touchline conversion to potentially give the Vikings something to attack in the second half.

But right on the bell Wellens seized on a Widnes handling error, with Sculthorpe's pass allowing Ian Hardman to squeeze in at the corner.

The second half was a mere formality with Mason taking a magnificent inside ball from Sculthorpe to cross for his first try of the season and escape any end of season forfeit.

Moule's try for the Chemics was a mere consolation, as Saints continued to leave calling cards that Super League IX was going to be business as usual, even without Long and Gleeson.

Sculthorpe rounded off good work from the rampaging John Stankevitch, who shook off two high looking tackles, staying on his feet to send the pass right to his skipper.

Then strong running Wilkin rounded off the scoring when, taking Wellens' pass, he used his loaf and his strength to get the ball over the line in one movement.