Skankevitch rues defensive efforts

Aug 7 2008 by Dave Bettley, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

ASSISTANT coach John Stankevitch put Vikings’ defeat at Hilton Park down to their poor start to the game.

Widnes recovered to lead 16-14 at the break but early defensive work ultimately cost them.

“I have been doing the stats for the last three games and our completion rate in the two games prior to the Leigh game was good and we started both really well,” said the deputy boss.

“The difference at the weekend was we started the game really poorly.

“Whenever we play Leigh away, we always seem to start slowly.

“Whether it is a little bit of intimidation, I don’t know, but we can’t afford to do that – we can’t afford any team to get a start on us.

“The amount of defending we had to do for the first 20 or 30 minutes took it out of us at the back end of the game.”

Widnes, already six points down after Ian Mort’s try, weren’t helped when promising youngster Matty Strong was stretchered off after more than five minutes of treatment.

Strong had taken a blow to the head, diving bravely on a kick from ex-Widnes player Dennis Moran.

There was clear concern as he was tended to by both clubs’ medical staff and also paramedics.

This was to be the first of two knocks to the head suffered by Widnes players with a groggy Chris Dean walking off in the second half.

Widnes had barely recovered from the loss of Strong when second-rower Adam Higson added the hosts’ second try which was allowed to stand when it looked as if he had been tackled short.

But towards the half hour, Jim Gannon made ground for Scottish internationals Lee Paterson and John Duffy to pick out Dean Gaskell.

The winger celebrated the signing of his new contract with a converted try at the corner.

But Dave Alstead’s unconverted effort then opened a 14-6 lead which the Centurions were worth.

Sam Barlow inspired the fightback which saw Widnes wipe out the arrears to go into the interval in profit.

He was heavily involved in touchdowns for Richard Fletcher and Steve Tyrer.

After an early second-half stalemate, Widnes stretched their lead to eight points through a great solo effort from Matty Smith which provided Tyrer with his third successful conversion.

Tyrer added another and a 65th-minute penalty goal but not before Moran had engineered a well-taken converted try for Dave McConnell.

An opportunist second try for winger Alstead, followed by the extras and Moran’s drop goal put Leigh three points in front.

Tyrer and Gavin Dodd in turn went close for the visitors but Ian Watson, another former Widnes player, supported a breakaway for Leigh to clinch the victory.

Widnes half-back Duffy echoed Stankevitch’s thoughts on the game.

He said: “For the first 30 minutes, they dominated us and the first three times we got in their half, we coughed up the ball very cheaply.

“Once we got into the game, we showed some good touches and skill.

“Just the last 10 minutes let us down in terms of discipline, along with a couple of key moments in the game.”

Duffy admitted Strong’s injury had been particularly disconcerting.

“It looked pretty bad at the time and we were really concerned about him,” added Duffy.

“But obviously we asked about Matty at half-time and knew he had come through and was going to be OK.

“Matty has been doing really well since he has got his chance.

“Everyone has been really impressed with the way he has handled the step up. I think he has got a massive future ahead of him.”