IT was neither a merry Christmas nor a happy New Year for the Vikings.

Widnes followed up their 22-27 home reverse to Leigh with a 20-12 defeat at Boundary Park on New Years Day.

As on Boxing Day, Widnes scored the same number of tries as their opponents but were again hamstrung by the lack of a quality goalkicker.

With less than a quarter of the game remaining, the Vikings held a 11-12 lead against a home side which were making numerous unforced handling errors until Oldham player/coach Mike Ford produced his tactical masterstroke - he brought himself on.

He made an immediate impact by dropping a goal to level the scores and provided the inspiration behind Danny Arnold's late brace of tries which wrapped the game up for the Roughyeds.

Widnes has dominated the early part of the second half and may feel they should have capitalised further after star man Martin Crompton had given them the lead with a well taken try on 50 minutes.

The Vikings had made a sluggish start to the game and found themselves 8-0 down after 12 minutes thanks to a try for Oldham winger Darryl Lacy and two goals from Pat Rich.

Tries from Phil Coussons and Damian Munro kept Widnes in the hunt with Monro's the pick of the pair. Hitting a Crompton short-ball at pace, the fullback rounded his opposite number to race in the corner from 30 yards for a great score.

A further Rich goal was sandwiched between the Vikings' touchdowns and a Neil Roden drop-goal established an 11-8 lead for the home side as they went in at the interval.

Just about everything that was good about the Vikings on attack emanated yet again from Crompton, and when his try put them ahead there seemed to be every reason for optimism.

Oldham, and Ford had other ideas.

Widnes boss David Hulme will no doubt be looking forward to getting injured stars Karle Hammond and Ian Watson into the fray to give his side some extra attacking options.

Back-to-back home games against Workington and Swinton should offer the Vikings the opportunity to get their season rolling in the right direction.

Widnes: Munro (1t), Coussons (1t), Percival, Kilgannon, Forster, Demetriou, Crompton (1t), Knox, Cantillon, Rhodes, Faimalo, McKinney, Hodgkinson. Subs: Jones, Holgate, Hill, Argent