Widnes St Maries 18 Castleford Panthers 8

THE Saints marched on to joint second place in the National Conference League with an impressive performance to register their opponents biggest defeat to date.

The league high-fliers have so far been averaging 36 points for and conceded only 10.

But defences dominated this hard-fought match, with Will Tilleke, Anthony Hollins and Premier Security mom Ian Dawson outstanding for the Maries, with Castleford's Craig Potter and scrumhalf Chris Hepworth the pick of a very tasty bunch.

A clever Mark Keenan chip through was kicked dead after six minutes just as Barry Quinn and Hollins were about to pounce.

After a quickly taken penalty for a high tackle on Tony Hannon, Carl Leach, on his return from Academy duty, broke only to be incorrectly pulled back.

Sean Wales missed a penalty for Castleford before Hollins was sin-binned.

And Adam Flanagan and Leach had to pull off last-ditch tackles to prevent a dangerous Panthers attack that at times threatened to run riot.

The Maries lost the services of Keenan with what appeared to be a broken arm. Fortunately, it turned out only to be a dislocated wrist.

And despite brave defence from Darren McKinnon, Mark Moran, Piula Tuiono and a breathtaking attempt from Dawson, the visitors scored out wide through Simon Wassell after 27 minutes.

Even with a great breaks by Leach from 30 metres, as well as Dawson and McKinnon, it was almost half-time before the hosts scored.

Tilleke put out a great under-arm pass to Moran who fed the alert Flanagan who eased in for Paul Argent to convert giving the Maries a 6-4 interval lead.

The introduction of Harmoni Tuavo had devastating effects when Dawson and Tuiono put him in for a typical barnstorming finish.

Dawson kicked through for Leach to miss out by inches as the ball ran dead.

Tuavo, Hannon, Hollins and Dawson were now punching big holes in the Panthers defence but a Dawson field goal after 55 minutes emphasised how tight this game was.

Wassell scored his second try when pushed out wide after sound defence and breathtaking tackles from Quinn and Argent.

Dawson claimed another drop goal before setting up the game breaker when he kicked through early on in the tackle count for Flanagan to claim his second after haring 50 metres to score under the posts giving Argent a simple conversion.

Gary McKeown, Lee Campbell, Jamie Rowlands and Matty Grady all combined to set up a rock solid defence that refused to concede a further point, ensuring that Castleford registered their lowest score of the campaign.

Next Saturday the Conference side visit Milford Marlins of Leeds for the first of two tough away games with the North West Counties side entertaining Widnes Albion Bulls in a local derby.