Ardent Wire fan Rob Watson gives his view on Sunday's Challenge Cup victory over Widnes.

AFTER a long series of league games that just felt like Wire had to win to keep their season alive, it was time for a pure cup contest where there was no doubt they had to win to keep alive their chances of success at Wembley this year.

Local rivals Widnes were always likely to provide a good test of just how much Wire’s resurgence in form was turning their season around.

Whichever team you support, it should be noted that it was great to see so many young players involved in this contest, players who have come through their respective club’s academy system.

Widnes appeared to believe that their best chance of being Wire was to imitate Wire’s own most used game plan, that of a lot of quick runs down the middle trying to get the defence retreating from any quick play the balls that those runs created.

Added to the runs were lots of productive offloads that helped them gain plenty of ground down the middle of Wire’s defence and very much established Widnes in the game.

It was the visitors who scored first, crashing over from close range in the 15th minute.

Wire never looked too rattled by going behind and within seven minutes or so, they were back on level terms when Atkins changed his angle of run just enough to beat the Widnes goal line defence when he ran onto a pass from Patton.

From there, Wire enjoyed more of the play and took the lead after a ball steal from Brown lead to a sin-binning for Hanbury.

That was a time when the game could have got away from Widnes, but to their credit they only conceded one try whilst down to 12 men, Brown dummying his way over from close range. Wire’s lead of six at half time looked far from decisive.

In the second half, Widnes continued to be a force in the game and actually got on top for a large spell, resulting in them being in front with around 15 minutes to go and a classic cup shock looked a possibility.

It was really encouraging to see Wire not panic or lose confidence when behind on the scoreboard.

Brown again got close to the line but looked to be held up by about five Widnes defenders, only for him to produce in Inspector Gadget impression and somehow reach out and down from a standing position to plonk the ball down over the line for the try that gave Wire the lead that they would never lose.

Two more Wire tries followed, first Russell somehow scored in the corner when the space didn’t really look to be there, then by complete contrast Hill ran through the biggest gap he’ll possibly run through in his whole career to score under the posts.

Another good performance with plenty still to improve upon ahead of the Magic Weekend clash with Wigan, who Wire will now also face in the challenge Cup quarter final. T The squad is looking deeper every week and with plenty of players capable of playing in more than one position.

Tony Smith has an abundance of options every time he selects a matchday squad and plenty of flexibility for change throughout a game.

In a season when only Castleford have looked outstanding so far, I still consider Wire contenders for both major honours.