IT was a case of 'close but no cigar' for Widnes on Friday night as they went down 23-22 to Wigan Warriors at JJB Stadium.

In recent weeks, the Vikings have got within a score of beating Hull and now Wigan on their travels, as well as giving Super League Champions Leeds Rhinos a run for their money at Halton Stadium.

However, no league points have come the way of Frank Endacott's men and they now find themselves at the bottom of engage Super League X.

Endacott must be praying for his side to get that bit of extra luck they need and he could certainly argue they didn't get the rub of the green at times in this match.

A case in point was Wigan's opening try.

It was scored by standoff Kevin Brown but left the Vikings players flabbergasted at how referee Karl Kirkpatrick missed a glaring knock-on in the build up.

Widnes decided to test young Warriors fullback Chris Melling with a series of kicks but it was from a more direct route the breakthrough eventually came.

Fine work by Aaron Moule saw him slip a pass away to Daniel Frame who scored by the posts.

Stephen Myler's conversion made it 6-6 after 19 minutes,

Wigan enjoyed their best spell of the match midway through the first half and took advantage to establish a crucial lead.

Irish winger Brian Carney latched onto a Dennis Moran kick to score a try on his comeback from injury, and loose-forward Stephen Wild found a hole up the centre of the Vikings defence to score at the posts.

Both tries were converted by Danny Tickle to give the home side an 18-6 advantage they held onto at half time.

Vikings skipper Shane Millard, who had a first half effort ruled out, stretched over again on 47 minutes and this time got the thumbs up from referee Kirkpatrick to make it 18-12 with Myler's goal.

On 61 minutes, Simon Finnigan did well to get a pass out of a tackle to send winger Richie Barnett over to get Widnes within two points.

Tickle stretched the difference to six again with a try in the corner but Widnes were looking the more dangerous side.

With 10 minutes remaining, a powerful run by Sala Fa'alogo saw him create the space for Gray Viane to score and Myler's touchline conversion levelled things up at 22-22 to the delight of the travelling Vikings' fans.

Moran dropped what proved to be the winning goal on 75 minutes but even then Widnes had their chances to snatch a win.

It wasn't to be and given their situation you couldn't blame the Vikings for having one eye on their next Super League game against Wakefield when they play Barrow in the Powergen Challenge Cup this weekend.

Widnes: Connolly; Emelio; Viane (1t); Moule; Barnett (1t); Craigie; Myler (3g); O'Connor; Millard (1t); Stankevitch; Cassidy; Frame (1t); Finnigan; Subs: Hulse; Fa'alogo; O'Neill; Smith.