Wigan 28-12 Widnes: Warriors end wait for win

Match stats: Wigan 28-12 Widnes

Wigan tries: O'Loughlin (16), Clubb (32), Tierney (36), Burgess (72,77)
Wigan goals: Williams (16,32,72,78)  

Widnes tries: White (39,56)
Widnes goals: White (39,56) 

Match report 

Wigan recorded their first Super League win since April as they were pushed all the way by Widnes in a 28-12 victory.

Defeat against the Vikings would have all but ended the champions' hopes of being at Old Trafford in October, but they managed to dig deep and take the points.

Wigan led 16-6 at the break, and although they were not at their fluent best they were much the better team to get the win.

The hosts opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Thomas Leuluai's pinpoint chip kick was collected by Sean O'Loughlin and he touched down by the side of the posts. George Williams added the extras as the home side led 6-0.

Tony Clubb, returning for the first time since having a kidney removed, entered the fray after 22 minutes to a standing ovation and immediately took the ball in, dragging three defenders with him.

Clubb's introduction lifted Wigan and he was making the hard yards in attack and putting the hits on in defence, and he was rewarded with a try in the 32nd minute as he took a short pass to barge over. Williams' conversion saw the Warriors lead 12-0.

Wigan were the better team in the first half and they crossed for two more tries in the last 10 minutes. First, Clubb barged over from close range and then Lewis Tierney went over in the corner after an overlap was made on the right.

Lloyd White gave the Widnes fans something to cheer about on the hooter as he collected a chip over from Corey Thompson for the hooker to touch down. He converted his own try as they trailed 16-6 at the break.

The start of the second half was lacking a spark, only for Widnes to produce a try out of absolutely nothing.

Joe Mellor's kick bounced off John Bateman's back and into the hands of White, who proceeded to race 50 yards before catching Sam Tomkins cold with an outrageous dummy to score by the posts. He again converted his own try as they now trailed 16-12.

Widnes were now the better team and the Warriors looked tired heading into the final 20 minutes. It looked as if they were about to level it up as the ball made it across to Stefan Marsh, but he was met by Burgess and the winger dumped him into touch.

Ryan Sutton thought he had won the game for Wigan but he was held inches short as the home side looked to be getting a second wind.

It was Joe Burgess, in fact, who won it for the Warriors as he collected a long ball from Tomkins to go in at the corner before touching down a kick in the corner for his second. Williams converted both as Wigan secured a 28-12 victory. 

Post-match reaction 

Wigan coach Shaun Wane was a happy man after seeing his side win their first Super League game since April, but has called on them to be more ruthless. 

"I'm happy with the win but I'm frustrated with some of the errors," said Wane. "If we keep hold of the ball and stop the unforced errors we could have won by a bigger margin. That's what we need to do, we need to be a bit more ruthless and we weren't that today.

"Our defence was much improved, they got two tries from poor defensive errors, but apart from that we defended really well.

"We have made massive improvements, but we can't mask over it. I don't see it as a monkey off our back. I have got a fairly fit team, we have beaten Warrington to reach the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, we have drawn against Huddersfield who are a very good team and we have beaten Widnes who are on the back of a few wins.

"You lot (press) create that monkey, I don't feel that at all, not one bit if I'm honest." 

Denis Betts was pleased with how Widnes went against Wigan but believed a lack of composure and fatigue played a part in their downfall.

"We played all right," he said. "At 16-12 with 10 minutes to go it's a pretty tight game. We have come back into it. If you look at the first two tries, Clubb's isn't a try and O'Loughlin's is a bit of magic and Danny Craven is out of position because he's only played two games at full-back.

"We defended our goal-line well, we've got to complete a bit better and be smarter with the ball, but other than that we didn't look out of our depth.

"I thought we had a chance to win that game but we didn't have enough composure or cutting edge to be able to do that."