In this N F P match played on 05 Mar 2000 at Derwent Park , the referee was Richard Silverwood (Dewsbury), and 882 people watched. In very very windy weather, the half time score was 10- 6, and Workington received 11 penalties to Widnes's 9.		GAMESTAR Phil Cantillon
Workington Town	16
Widnes Vikings	10

WITLESS WIDNES

This was another disastrous trip to Cumbria for the Vikings who were found to be lacking in extreme conditions.
This time it wasn't the rain, sleet or muddy pitch that they had to contend with, but the wind. There was a strong wind blowing down the Derwent Park pitch, but there always is to some degree. In the first half, Workington (they're not very good, bless 'em) employed a kicking game to utilize the strength of the elements. It is fortunate that they hadn't got a clue what to do with the ball when they were near the Widnes line, or it would have been even more embarrassing for the Vikings.
To be fair to Widnes, their defence held firm in the face of the early onslaught, and they managed to fight their way back into the Town half on 13 minutes. When Cliff Eccles took the ball in, he ran through one defender and held off another to score against the run of play. Verbickas totally misjudged the wind, and the conversion attempt was blown wide.
Five minutes later, Widnes old boy Anthony Samuel capitalized when the Widnes defence waited for the ball to roll dead after a grubber kick. He simply dived at the Vikings' feet to score. The ball was floated across the face of goal and the ball did the rest.
Another two penalties from Workington, and one from Verbickas made up the rest of the scores for the first half.
A mix up between Verbickas and Munro wouldn't have looked out of place in Chipperfield's Circus when the former appeared to dummy a pass to his team-mate. When Munro tried to take the ball, it went bouncing away, giving Widnes fans more red faces than a Sioux tribe.
In the second half, Widnes started well, with Eccles and Gee running well, but there was no real flair with the ball, and Workington closed down every attack before anything was gained.
Paul Mansson, great kicker though he is, seems oblivious to the whereabouts of the 40 metre line and runs across it before taking a kick to touch. Karl Fitzpatrick, on the other hand, cleverly stepped back over the line to take his, giving Widnes possession close to the opposition line.
When Widnes did score a try, it was a lovely one. Chris Percival broke and let Andy Cheetham sprint away. When the cover came across, Paul Mansson was there to take the ball and score the try. Quite why Danny Myler kicked the ball halfway to the docks when time was off the essence, I don't know. Idiotic stuff like that cost us about a minute while the ball was retrieved. It didn't matter, though, because Verbickas sent the ball straight towards the posts and guess what... The wind blew it wide.
Damian Munro looked on course to win the race to a long-range kick through but the referee (who was unable to view knock-ons or forward passes, not to mention the odd knee and elbow) shouted to him that he was offside, denying Widnes another late try.
The good points from this match? Phil Cantillon (no, really?), Steve Gee, and Chris Percival stood out from the rest with their strong running, and Andy Cheetham impressed when he actually got the ball. So many times, Widnes sent the ball left and Workington knew this. Half the time, Cheetham was screaming for the ball in acres of space and he never got a sniff.
George Mann contributed nothing to the game. At times, in defence, he stood still as if he were offside, and let the attackers run past him. It was quite incredible. It got to the stage when Workington fans were telling their players to run at him. Perhaps it's time to reconsider his constant place in the side.
Against Rochdale, a high brought us a try and caused consternation in the defence, but we didn't use that in this game. The wind was shouting for long scything kicks to touch, but we only got taps to the defenders' arms. And the breaking runs were far too rare. We need to see forwards get through the line and provide our pacy backs with the ball. If that doesn't happen, we won't win anything.

WIDNES

1. Damien Munro
2. Andy Cheetham
3. Chris Percival
4. Danny Myler
5. Simon Verbickas
6. Paul Mansson
7. Karl Fitzpatrick
8. Steve Argent
9. Phil Cantillon
10. Cliff Eccles
11. Steve Gee
12. Dave Smith
13. David Hulme
14. Afi Leuila
15. Lee Hansen
16. Jason Donohue
17. George Mann