WIDNES Vikings held on for a 30-28 victory over Wakefield Trinity Wildcats at Halton Stadium although they had to survive a late scare.

The Vikings were thankful for the contribution of standoff Jules O'Neill whose two tries and immaculate goal kicking brought him an 18-point haul.

He was more than matched in terms of individual performance by his Wakefield counterpart Jamie Rooney, once a Widnes transfer target, who scored a hat-trick of tries and kicked six goals.

After Rooney had kicked the visitors into an early lead, O'Neill exerted his considerable influence on the game.

On 10 minutes he latched onto a loose ball before embarking on a looping 30 metre run which saw him crash over in the corner despite the attentions of a couple of Wakefield defenders.

His conversion, from the 'wrong' touchline was superbly struck.

Within five minutes he doubled his tally albeit in less spectacular style, as he forced his way over from the play-the-ball.

Rooney exploited some poor tackling to score a converted try for the visitors and pulled a further two points back with a penalty before the Vikings registered their third try just before the interval.

Substitute forward Anthony Farrell showed great footwork as he sidestepped through to give Widnes an 18-10 half time lead.

The Vikings blitzed the visitors with two tries early in the second half.

Second row Andy Hay barged over from a Ryan Sheridan pass and then Farrell showed he could sidestep off both feet as he scored his second try after excellent work on the last tackle from winger Paul Devlin.

At 30-10, Widnes looked home and dry and perhaps that's what the players thought.

The Wildcats, and Rooney in particular, had other ideas.

He converted winger Mark Field's 53rd minute score and then backed up a David Wrench break to cross for his second try.

When he beat Paul Atcheson to a Brad Davis chip through for his hat-trick, alarm bells were ringing for the Vikings.

Fortunately, they kept their composure and held out for the remaining nine minutes for a victory, which sets up next week's huge clash with play-off rivals Warrington.

l Widnes: Spruce; Demetriou; Bird; Hughes; Devlin; J O'Neill (2t, 5g); Sheridan; Relf; Cantillon; JF O'Neill; Hay (1t); Millard; Frame; Subs: McCurrie; Farrell (2t); Atcheson; Finnigan.