Wigan late show consigns Widnes to Middle 8s
Last Updated: 17/07/15 11:17pm
Ryan Hampshire and Anthony Gelling both scored in the final 10 minutes as Wigan defeated Widnes 20-10 at the DW Stadium.
Only a victory was good enough for the Vikings as they needed to collect maximum points from their last two matches to have a chance of finishing in the top eight.
Widnes should have gone into the half-time break 10-4 up after Tom Gilmore and Chris Dean cancelled out a Josh Charnley try, but a lack of concentration from Rhys Hanbury allowed Joe Burgess to grab Wigan's second and they went in level at 10-10.
It took 31 second-half minutes for the deadlock to be broken again as Widnes' defensive line was finally breached when Hampshire backed to score while Gelling's late try confirmed the win.
Wigan took the lead inside the first 90 seconds with a try from nothing when the ball was spread wide from Sean O'Loughlin and Joel Tomkins to John Bateman who fed Charnley on the wing.
He then kicked ahead and Hampshire hacked on before scooping low to regather and offload for Charnley to touch down.
Half breaks from Gil Dudson and Rhys Hanbury put the Vikings deep in Wigan's half before Gilmore was released and he raced away under the posts before converting his own score for a 6-4 lead.
Mellor and Gilmore were causing Wigan problems with ball in hand and it was the latter who set up Widnes' second try as he put Dean through a massive gap to score after 34 minutes.
Just as it looked like the Warriors would go into half-time trailing they pulled another rabbit out of the hat.
Gelling's grubber kick was misjudged by Hanbury and Burgess got a toe to it before picking up the loose ball and racing away to score. Matty Smith converted to level it up at 10-10.
A 40-20 from Danny Craven put the Vikings deep in Wigan's half and it looked like Patrick Ah Van was going to use all his strength and trample all over Charnley to score in the corner, but the Wigan man held his ground and forced his opposite number into touch.
Gelling went agonisingly close to scoring following good work from Smith, Williams and Hampshire, but Wigan kept the pressure on and a great double last ditch tackle from Dean and Mellor prevented Gelling from grounding the ball.
Ah Van then looked to have put them in front as he went close in the corner, but referee Phil Bentham ruled he had knocked the ball on, while Smith was off target at the other end with a drop goal attempt.
Wigan kept their best until the final 10 minutes as Gelling and Burgess combined down the left and the winger kept his cool to offload back inside for Hampshire to go over.
Widnes threw caution to the wind in a bid to claim a last gasp victory but it was Wigan who had the final say as Gelling touched down with seconds remaining to preserve Wigan’s unbeaten home record.
