IT'S coming to the time of the season when Wire are looking to establish what sort of team they are going to be this season - title challengers again or just one of the also rans.

Beating the league leaders Leeds twice and being the only team to have beaten them would imply they are title contenders themselves, but other results suggest that maybe they are merely the Kryptonite to the current Super League Super men.

A home match against Widnes signalled the start of a run of fixtures that if Wire are going to be a title contender they need to be winning a lot more of than they lose.

Wire started against Widnes with an intensity and desire that gave the impression that they were determined for the win at Leeds to be the turning point in the season rather than a glorious oasis of brilliance in a desert of mediocrity.

Maybe they also had revenge on their mind after the Easter defeat in Widnes.

A gradual build up of pressure led to the opening try with a straightforward handling move to the left creating just enough space for Gene Ormsby to score.

By conceding a string of penalties Wire relinquished the ascendency and Widnes equalised with a try of their own in the left corner.

From then on it always looked like being a close and mostly scrappy game.

Ben Westwood created the next two Wire tries, the first in a completely unexpected way as if he was trying to outdo Ben Harrison from the week before by producing an unexpected but perfectly weighted grubber kick for Joel Monaghan to score in the corner.

The next try was more vintage Westwood as he crashed through the Widnes line about twenty metres out before offloading in the tackle to Daryl Clark who was supporting on the inside and was able to race through under the posts virtually untouched.

Any thoughts of Wire pulling away were shelved when Widnes scored on the stroke of half time to make the half time lead a mere 14-8 for Wire.

Widnes started the second half the better and when Kevin Brown dummied and jinked his way over near the posts the scores were level.

To say the least it was an unusual try that gave Widnes their first lead of the match, a one on one ball steal leading to a breakaway try from inside the Widnes half and the successful conversion gave them a 20-14 lead.

So Wire went into the last twenty minutes trailing by six, the composure may have been lacking but the spirit and desire were clearly there.

With just under fifteen minutes to go Westwood barged his way over from acting half back after Ormsby had been tackled just short. Patton missed the tricky conversion from the touchline and Wire were still trailing by two.

There didn’t look to be too much of a plan as to how the winning score might come, more so that they were hoping to get close to the line and maybe score off a kick.

Wire did keep going forward though and applying the pressure on the Widnes line.

Widnes themselves looked capable of scoring the clinching try and had one disallowed for what appeared to be an obstruction.

With just a minute or so left Wire had got near the Widnes line but a grubber kick across the line was safely gathered by Widnes and it appeared the away side were going to hang on, but the ball was gathered behind their line and Wire made the tackle to force the drop out.

By the time that kick was taken there were 45 seconds left for Wire to salvage something from the game.

With the seconds ticking away the ball was shifted to the right to Stefan Ratchford who flung a pass out to Monaghan who managed to not only scoop it up off his bootlaces around ten metres from the line, but then to swivel, twist and muscle his way over in the corner to snatch a dramatic win with around ten seconds left on the clock.

I was way too far away to see if the grounding was any good with my own eyes but the reaction of the nearby players and fans told me all I needed to know.

That try led to brilliant celebrations on the terraces and a delightful mix of joy and relief. For anyone who left before the end, I hope you have learned after your lesson.

Hopefully we’ll be able to look back on that try as the moment that allowed Wire to start establishing themselves in the top four and at least give them a chance of ending the sixty year wait this October.