Explosive Hughes keeps Healy and Castleford at bay

Widnes 27 Castleford 16

Adam Hughes scored the sort of try that richly deserved to decide a battle for which of these sides would go into a play-off position.

Widnes were trailing after 64 minutes here last night when the big centre had to backtrack to retrieve a terrible pass from Ryan Sheridan, but Hughes showed his class on an explosive 40-yard run to the line that pointed his team towards victory after they had struggled to impose themselves on Castleford, and Mitch Healey in particular.

Widnes looked keen enough to build on last week's marvellous win at Wigan, but they could not find the same clinical finishing in the frantic opening minutes last night.

Jules O'Neill missed a kickable penalty for off-side, but, after 20 minutes, finally got the scoreboard moving after Healey, the Castleford scrum-half, had been penalised for holding down his opposite number Sheridan.

Against the run of play, it was Castleford who claimed the game's first try, thanks to a perfect pass delivered by Andy Lynch to Andy Johnson. Healey was in support to finish the job, although Paul Devlin might have had a chance of catching him if he had not stumbled over the referee, Bob Connolly.

Healey added the conversion, plus a penalty when he was held down, so their six-point lead was soon whittled down, Hughes knocking back Sheridan's high kick and Andy Hay getting a pass around the corner for Devlin to score on the left wing.

Castleford suffered a further setback when Healy was sin-binned as Connolly tired of the messing around in the tackle, but they still hung on to their two-point lead until half-time.

Healey came straight out of the sin-bin to double that lead with his third goal, but almost immediately Shane Millard's clever play from dummy-half exposed Castleford's weak defence to allow Daniel Frame to plant the ball down and Jules O'Neill to kick them into the lead.

But Healey struck again, latching onto Ryan Hudson's kick for his second try. Healey continued to monopolise Castleford's scoring with the conversion, and Julian O'Neill and Dale Fritz were sin-binned for fighting in the aftermath.

Hughes then scored his spectacular try and that proved to be all the inspiration Widnes needed. Five minutes later, some wonderful handling ended with Hughes getting the ball to Devlin for his second.

O'Neill's drop-goal and Dan Potter's try made sure that Widnes would at least spend the night in sixth spot.

The Widnes coach, Neil Kelly, said: "Adam's try was the sort that was always going to decide a game like this. It's nice to be in sixth place and it shows that we are building some momentum in the right part of the season."

Castleford's Graham Steadman could not fault his side's endeavour but said that their early workload had worn them down. "I knew Widnes were going to finish strongly with the amount of pressure they had," he said.

Widnes: Spruce, Potter, Bird, Hughes, Devlin, Jules O'Neill, Sheridan, Relf, Millard, Julian O'Neill, Hay, McCurrie, Frame. Subs: Cantillon, Farrell, Atcheson, Finnigan.

Castleford: Rogers, Pryce, Eagar, Mellor, Gibson, Hepworth, Healey, Smith, Hudson, Lynch, Harland, Fritz, Johnson. Subs: Saxton, Thackray, Huby, Godwin.

Referee: R Connolly (Wigan).