Widnes 4 Saints 40

CLINICAL Saints deservedly took the derby spoils after ripping the Vikings apart with a breathtaking second half try blitz.

The first half had been a tight, tense affair with only Keiron Cunningham's 23rd minute touchdown separating the sides at the interval - but all that changed after the restart.

Lightweight Saints, who lost prop Barry Ward as early as the fourth minute, had to withstand some ferocious hits from the fired up Vikings and struggled to penetrate the home side's keen defensive line early on.

But there was no panic football - the champions patiently dug in, with makeshift prop John Stankevitch standing up well in the fierce midfield confrontations, particularly against former Knowsley Roader Julian O'Neill.

He was well supported by Cunningham, who had his best game of the season so far and added some real aggression to Saints' play.

There were other stand out performances from the ever-dependable Paul Wellens and loose forward Jason Hooper, who covered every blade of grass in one of his best displays for the club.

Those two combined well with Sean Long to set up Saints second try, with the full back racing under the posts eight minutes after the restart.

And eight minutes later Wellens' 45 metre surge set up the perfect position to allow prop Keith Mason to go over for his first try in Saints colours and Widnes' plucky resistance began to fall apart.

Perhaps the Vikings did not deserve the points avalanche that followed, but Saints simply clicked. After last week's let down at Hull, Saints gave their large travelling army, who had to be accommodated on three sides of the ground, something to cheer about.

It became a try feast for the stadium record crowd of 9457 to lap up. Cunningham's quick 20m restart sent Mick Higham scurrying 70 metres for a try under the sticks and then Darren Albert finished off some smart handling from Hooper.

And although Paul Devlin took a neat pass from former Saint Steven Myler to go over, the rest was one way traffic.

Darren Smith, switched to loose forward late in the game, then showed a clean pair of heels to the Vikings cover to cross in the corner.

Wellens then sent Albert over in the same right hand corner. Long added another superb touchline conversion to bring up the 40 and hand the Vikings another painful derby day lesson.

Widnes: Spruce; Demitriou, James, Hughes, Devlin; Frame, Sheridan; Relf, Millard, O'Neill, Hay, Finnigan, Bird. Subs: Farrell, Cantillon, Mills, Myler.

Saints: Wellens: Albert, Talau, Newlove, Gardner; Long, Higham, Ward, Cunningham, Stankevitch, Smith, Bennett, Hooper. Subs: Jonkers, Mason, Jones, Stewart.