Widnes leave it late

Warrington held off Wakefield 35-20 at Wilderspool while their neighbours Widnes overcame London Broncos 32-20 a few miles down the road at the Halton Stadium yesterday.

Widnes's victory was their second in successive Super League games, but three late tries were needed to settle the thrilling encounter.

Widnes had led 16-4, but London responded through Steve Hall, Nigel Roy and Tony Martin to nudge in front in the closing stages. But Andrew King's visit to the sin bin was to prove costly as Andy Hay, Paul Atcheson and the former Bronco Shane Millard all went over for the Vikings in the last six minutes.

The Widnes coach Neil Kelly was a relieved man, saying: "In the end we made it harder work than we should have. It was a bit frustrating, we had a good lead but then conceded too many penalties on the last tackle. We switched off and let London back in the game, but we got there in the end."

Tony Rae, the Broncos coach, was disappointed his side did not win after putting themselves in a good position. "Andrew King being sent to the sin bin near the end was a crucial play," he said. "The referee got caught up in the atmosphere of the crowd and had a poor game. It was our first away defeat of the season but it shows we are a very difficult team to beat."

Ian Sibbit and Lee Penny set Warrington on the way to a place in the top six and there were also tries for the former Wildcat Nathan Wood, Rob Smyth, Jon Clarke and Nick Fozzard. Wakefield replied through Matt Seers, Michael Korkidas and Adrian Vowles, but the Wolves hung on.