Smith: Wolves were deserving losers in the 'Gareth Hock show'

[josie andrews]

WOLVES were deserving losers in a game labelled ‘the Gareth Hock show’ by Wolves boss Tony Smith.

Warrington never quite looked at the races with ball in hand and were eventually were made to pay by a Vikings side that fought back from a second half deficit to hand a stunned Wolves side their first ‘derby’ defeat since 2004.

Widnes coach Denis Betts argued that several more Vikings players, notably former Wolf Jon Clarke, could have been selected as man of the match, but Hock typified the relentless efforts of the Vikings to get something from the game.

The best player on the field for mine was Gareth Hock,” said Smith.

“I thought it was the Gareth Hock show for the first hour of that match, he was a big danger man.

“He offloaded at will and came up with some big plays, I thought he was outstanding and instrumental in a big turnaround for Widnes.”

But Wolves will have to look closer to home when performing the post mortem on a game that they should have gone on to win.

Once a quick fire double from Rhys Evans and Richie Myler in the opening five minutes of the second half added to Chris Riley’s first half try to give them a 18-12 advantage, Wolves looked on their way to victory.

Widnes never looked more unlikely to win the game than during that spell after the restart, when they conceded two tries without touching the ball, but it was a mark of the home side’s resilience that they took full advantage of Warrington’s off day to run in tries from Rhys Hanbury, Lloyd White and Paddy Flynn, two, to send the 9,271-strong crowd into raptures.

“We did not deserve to win the game,” admitted Smith.

“We weren’t slick in attack by any means.

“The speed of the play the ball, the efficiency of our passing, none of it was great and we were off our game.

“We had to try and speed it up and were not able to sustain that unfortunately against the enthusiasm of Widnes, who were terrific.

“They were enthusiastic with their support play, they pushed hard for each other and their defence was pretty solid after the last few weeks, during which they have leaked a few points.

“But they have gone back to the drawing board and worked hard for each other and they deserved all the credit they receive from this victory.”

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[Kittwazzer]

Not seen the teams but would I be correct in thinking Briers was missing?