WITH only seconds to go at the Willows, impressive Salford fullback Damian Gibson, his side trailing by four points, scooped up a loose ball and looked certain to score a try to grab the City Reds at least a draw, writes Mark Farmer.

Adam Hughes had other ideas.

The Widnes centre pulled off one of the tackles of the season as he crashed Gibson over the corner flag to secure a 20-24 win.

The home side went ahead after a scrappy opening with a Bobbie Goulding penalty goal after a series of offences at the play-the-ball. Salford increased their advantage when loose-forward Mike Wainwright backed up a Gibson break to score a converted try as Widnes claimed, with some justification, the last pass was forward.

A Hughes penalty put Widnes on the scoreboard at 8-2 before the Vikings had two tries ruled out by the video referee.

When Chris Percival knocked-on a downtown kick under no pressure, Salford laid siege to the Vikings line again and were rewarded when right winger Stuart Littler bounced off Steve Carter's last-ditch challenge to score wide out to make it 12-2. Widnes had enjoyed little in the way of good field position but finally managed to get a foothold in enemy territory in the last 10 minutes of the half.

MOM Daniel Frame was first to take advantage when he took a quick tap penalty after Goulding had been caught offside to plunge over by the posts with Hughes adding the extras. With the last play of the half, a Frame cross-kick was spilled by Reds winger Michael Platt and Jason Demetriou pounced to stretch over.

Hughes' touchline conversion gave Widnes a 14-12 half time lead.

The Vikings enjoyed one of their best spells of the match early in the second period but it took until the 57th minute to increase the lead when Hughes leapt highest to catch a Carter bomb to claim the try.

Salford hit back in a similar scenario when Demetriou couldn't defuse a Goulding bomb under extreme pressure and second row Darren Treacy gathered the loose ball to romp in with Goulding converting to level the scores at 18 apiece.

Robert Relf's late challenge on Goulding saw the ex-Widnes hero kick his side into a two-point lead, which looked for a while, as it would suffice.

The introduction of Craig Weston added some spice to the Widnes attack and it was his inside ball that put Relf in to score.

Hughes added his fourth goal of the night and still had enough energy left to produce the last gasp heroics, which secured the points for the Vikings.