CUP heroics in the past, Colin Whitfield's men return to the business of winning promotion tonight (Wednesday) when Widnes play Featherstone.

Whitfield said: "The game will be hard and physical, it always will be up at Featherstone. They have not played for a couple of weeks so they will be fresh."

Barrow visit on Sunday, and the Vikings' coach expects a hard match there as well: "This will be a better competition than Super League this season because everybody is capable of turning everybody else over, whereas Super League you have four or five teams pulling away."

The weekend signing of ex-international Richard Eyres, 33, on a free from Coventry RUFC has bolstered the squad.

"No one's got the guarantee of a place, they have got to earn it," Whitfield explained.

"The more competition for places, the better performances will be."

On the Leeds match, Colin said: "The score wasn't a true reflection of how we performed and I think the people who were at the match realised that.

"The performance will give the team confidence. They have competed and matched probably the number one side in rugby league at the moment."

But he warned against complacency off the back of a good effort: "I would like to think they are professional enough to know that they have got a job to do," he added.

Meanwhile, chairman Tony Chambers urged the fans who watched the game to return next week: "I would like to thank all those Widnes supporters who came to the match.

"I'm sure you will agree with me that the effort of the players was beyond question and it was great to see the way the crowd responded."

Hoping for a good crowd against Barrow, he added: "Every Widnes fan who was there on Sunday should make a return trip this weekend."

The club banked £16,000 prize money for reaching the cup quarter-finals, plus half the receipts generated by the 6,345 gate.

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