Widnes 40pts Lancashire Lynx 4

LANCASHIRE Lynx's miserable Easter was completed when they went down to a 40-4 defeat at the Auto Question Stadium.

The scoreline does little justice for the effort that Lynx put in throughout the 80 minutes despite being without seven regular first team members, the match turning on two poor decisions by the referee either side of half time which swung the game Widnes's way.

After the game coach Steve Hampson said: "Overall it was a much better performance than against Barrow on Good Friday. With several players missing through injury and others playing out of position, the score line flattered Widnes."

On the injured players he said: "David Jones has knee ligament damage, Tommy Hodgkinson a broken bone in his elbow, Simon Smith a neck problem and Shaun Geritas rib damage. Only Simon Smith has a chance to be fit for Sunday."

He introduced ex Wigan and Leigh forward David Smith into the squad and he is hoping to have signed a half back and hooker in time for the Leigh game.

Neil Parsley was the Lynx try scorer in the first half.

There was little to choose between the sides in the opening stages, with Lynx having a good share of the play. Eventually they fell behind in the 19 minute with a converted try by Chris Percival after the makeshift full back lost the ball in a one to one situation. Undaunted, Lynx continued to battle away and were finally rewarded on the half hour when Neil Parsley was on hand to touch down. Widnes soon increased their leads when Paul Harris found a gap out wide to touch down.

Lynx then should have scored their second try of the game after a break by Darren Abram but somehow they failed to capitalise. From the restart Widnes broke down field and despite a blatant forward pass missed by the officials, Damian Monroe touched down for the Vikings to give them a 16-4 advantage.

Lynx had all the pressure at the start of the second half but again failed to take their chances. Widnes then broke away and another poor decision by the referee allowed Jim Cassidy to touch down on the seventh tackle.

This put the game out of Lynx's reach but they still were able to put pressure on the Widnes defence without any semblence of luck going their way.

Widnes continued to look dangerous in breaking from defence and this brought three further tries between 65 and 77 minutes from Damien Munroe and two from Danny Myler to give the home side a flattering winning scoreline.

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