Widnes edge out Oldham at Bower Fold

Widnes got the better of Oldham in a narrow 18-12 victory at Bower Fold, with Roughyeds left to rue a number of errors and missed opportunities.

The Vikings took an early lead through a Jordan Abdull penalty, but it was Oldham who crossed for the game’s opening try, as Brad Day powered over, which came off the back of a clever Josh Drinkwater line break.

Day’s debut was cut short in the first half having failed a HIA when he was clattered by Widnes, with referee Tara Jones placing the incident on report.

Widnes edged themselves back in front, just before the break, through Ryan Ince but Oldham could have cancelled that out, moments later, when Ted Chapelhow powered through – only to be controversially ruled held up.

“I think he got it down, and he thinks he got it down as well,” said Roughyeds boss Alan Kilshaw.

But that is not the reason we got beat… I am bitterly disappointed but congratulations to Widnes. I thought they handled the conditions and the ruck speed a lot better than we did.

We put pressure on ourselves. We had a six again on their line, after we had defended a lot. We made an error with them scoring a kick try off the back of it, when we really should have been putting the blowtorch on them.

Failing to find touch, from a penalty awarded early in the second half, proved costly with Fleming scoring in the proceeding set to extend the Vikings’ lead.

“We made every error you could have possibly made today,” Kilshaw added.

We dropped the ball from the kick off, missed touch with a penalty, made yardage errors…

Widnes came with a game plan and they deserve the win, but there is a lot of me that feels like we beat ourselves and that is disappointing.”

Kieran Dixon brought Widnes’ lead back to just two points after diving over in the corner, but Oldham could not build any pressure to threaten the Vikings line again.

Ince found a second, minutes from time, which inflicted a first home defeat of the season for Oldham whose attention now turns to Midlands Hurricanes.