Warrington 25 Vale of Lune 15

COACH Darren Abram insists Warrington must sharpen up their handling for Saturday’s home clash with neighbours Widnes, despite beating Vale of Lune this weekend.

A brace of tries from winger Keiron Hughes, along with scores for Karl Jefferies, Dan Fleming and points from the boot of Pat Roberts, helped Warrington to recover from their previous North One West defeat at Carlisle.

The win saw Warrington leap-frog their visitors and move sixth, one place behind Widnes, who boast a game in hand on their promotion rivals.

“This is probably some consolation after the disappointment of last week,” said Abram. “But we will have to sharpen up our handling for our big test against Widnes Saturday.”

Vale started the stronger and turned their pressure into points with an early penalty, starving the home side of possession from set pieces.

Once the hosts’ scrum began to function they gained a foothold and when the forwards turned over the ball in midfield Steve Pilkington teed up Jefferies to go the distance.

Within 10 minutes Warrington doubled their lead, fast, clean ball from a set scrum allowed Ashley Rockey to find Hughes in space and he blasted over from 30 yards.

The diminutive winger added his second before the break, capitalising on Pilkington’s overhead flick after four patient phases from the Warrington pack.

A converted score in the corner for the Vale winger narrowed the deficit to five points after the interval.

Dropped catches threatened to derail Warrington’s attacking momentum, but Roberts added a penalty to put the hosts further ahead.

The home side then put the game beyond Vale when the forwards executed a perfect driving maul from a lineout and Fleming claimed the touchdown.

Roberts added the extras from the touch line, before Vale managed a last-minute try, albeit it too late to affect the result.