Gardner cuts through Widnes

Widnes 4 St Helens

Saints, spearheaded by two tries from their young winger, Ade Gardner, showed Widnes the difference between a side with a cutting edge and one without as they went to the top of the embryonic Super League table.

Although Widnes had more than their fair share of play, it was the champions who showed how to turn that into points, leaving the side that made such a success of their first year in the competition without a win in it so far this season.

Two sides looking distinctly patched up were given a waterlogged pitch to play on at the Halton Stadium, with a strip of standing water through the middle pointing to a hard slog for the forwards.

One of those forwards, Saints' Darren Britt, made the first error of the game when his pass was intercepted by Deon Bird. The Australian was not fast enough to go all the way, but Anthony Stewart was sent to the sin-bin for holding him down.

Saints got a partial let off when Adam Hughes missed the penalty and an even more kickable opportunity when Jason Hooper was offside.

Those misses looked costly when the 12 men scored after only 11 minutes. Paul Sculthorpe applying the initial pressure with a kick that had to be hacked dead. From the return of possession, Sean Long sold the dummy to glide through a gap and over the try line, also showing Hughes how to do it with the conversion.

Despite the best efforts of both sides to overcome the conditions, that was the end of the first half scoring, Widnes wasted a good chance when substitute Phil Cantillon could not hang on to one of Dean Lawford's passes.

Widnes applied more pressure again in the second half, but a cruel turn of events saw Saints extend their lead when Lawford miscued his attempt to kick on the last tackle and Darren Albert picked up the loose ball to race 80 yards.

Saints then effectively put the game out of Widnes' reach with a typical piece of improvisation, Long, Sculthorpe and Paul Newlove setting up Gardner for his first.

Saints went close on three occasions before Long landed a penalty and Widnes finally took advantage of Darren Smith's sin-binning for a try through Hughes.

It was Saints who had the last word with Gardner squeezing in at the corner and Long adding the conversion.

Widnes: Spruce; Devlin, Potter, Hughes, Demetriou; Frame, Lawford; Relf, Millard, O'Neill, Hay, McCurrie, Bird. Substitutes used: Mills, Atcheson, Cantillon, Farrell.

St Helens: Albert; Stewart, Smith, Newlove, Gardner; Sculthorpe, Long; Britt, Joynt, Ward, Jonkers, Stankevitch, Hooper. Substitutes used: Higham, Jones, Edmondson, Kirkpatrick.

Referee: I Smith (Oldham).