Wakefield 30-4 Widnes: Wakefield on the up

Match stats: Wakefield 30-4 Widnes

Wakefield tries: Tupou (2), Johnstone (15,49), Hadley (32,58), Huby (61)
Conversions/penalties: Finn (49,58,61)

Widnes tries: Thompson (20) 

Match report: Wakefield on a roll

Dean Hadley grabbed two tries to help Wakefield gain a fifth win in six games and continue their climb up the Betfred Super League table with a 30-4 success over Widnes.

Trinity, six days after what many considered their best performance of the season - a 38-18 victory at Catalans Dragons - continued their upward momentum with other tries from Bill Tupou, Tom Johnstone, Scott Grix and Craig Huby, while Liam Finn kicked three goals.

The Vikings, who gained their first win of the season at Leigh the previous Saturday, had a sole reply through winger Corey Thompson.

It was the first time in almost 12 months that the West Yorkshire side had registered three successive wins and leaves them in high spirits prior to next week's eagerly awaited Good Friday derby at league leaders Castleford.

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Trinity boss Chris Chester had the luxury of naming the same side for the third week in a row, while Widnes were boosted by the return from injury of Thompson, Joe Mellor and Alex Gerrard with Gill Dudson back to make his 100th senior appearance.

An early Sam Williams kick bounced awkwardly and forced a goal line drop out to put pressure on the Widnes defence, who conceded less than a minute later when Finn put Tupou over from close range.

Williams failed to convert but Trinity continued to impress with swift and accurate handling.

It was that speed and dexterity that resulted in Finn and Grix creating the space for Johnstone to continue his recent scoring run with a sixth try in four games.

Widnes responded almost immediately when Thompson darted onto a kick from Tom Gilmore who, like Williams twice before him and once afterwards, was unable to add the extras.

Johnstone took a towering Jacob Miller kick and appeared wrapped up but somehow off-loaded to Hadley, who had a clear run to the line, before Tinirau Arona went close to extending Trinity's 12-4 half-time advantage but was held short by a posse of defenders.

The second period was all Wakefield, with Widnes struggling to free themselves from their own half.

A timely Matt Whitley tackle on breaking Wakefield skipper Danny Kirmond prevented the home side going further ahead just after the interval.

But Trinity didn't have to wait long before a thrilling Johnstone break down the left enabled the supporting Grix to cross midway between the posts and the touchline.

Finn, taking over the kicking duties, landed the first conversion of the night to give Trinity a 14-point cushion.

The lead was up to 20 just before the hour after a powerful drive and off-load from David Fifita handed Hadley his second try and Finn again converted.

Craig Huby charged onto a short pass to score and add to Widnes' woes. And the visitors' night was summed up when Chris Houston was deemed to have knocked on while trying ground a bobbling Mellor grubber.

Match reaction

Chris Chester, Wakefield coach: "We'll go there (to Castleford) full of confidence although they are running red hot at the moment.

"They are attacking very well at the moment - but we are playing well ourselves. They (Castleford) have not got many flaws.

"Twelve months ago you might have said the defence wasn't as good as the attack yet they've turned that around but we'll go their with a plan.

"Both teams are on fire and I'm sure the fans will turn out in numbers for the game.

"It was a pleasing performance - keeping a team scoreless in the second half shows some toughness and resilience.

"This game was a potential banana skin - they (Widnes) had a really good performance against Leigh last week so we knew they would come at us.

"We needed to control the ball and were a bit off at first - we were down at 40 per cent completion at one stage.

"We then completed the next eight sets, scored some good tries and created some good plays off of the back of it."

Widnes coach Denis Betts: "It was half a step forward and then three or four jumps back.

"We were poor and beaten soundly tonight and I'm really disappointed. It's probably one of the worst 80-minute efforts - it was a tough night.

"We've trained well this week but we lacked energy. There have been games when we have been poor in patches but done some good stuff too, yet I can't pick an incident in that game that looked like we were at the races."