Denis Betts was full of praise for Halifax after his side’s 14-0 victory at The Shay.
The Championship part-timers proved to be a stern test for the Vikings, who were kept pointless in the first-half and held a narrow 4-0 lead until the 77th minute.
Two tries from debutant Charly Runciman gave Widnes a huge victory, but Betts was quick to compliment Halifax after the game.
“We’ve got to give a lot of credit to Halifax,” said Betts
“They had loads of enthusiasm today. I thought our attack was a little bit sloppy, but that could be down to how well they defended.
“We played with twelve men for ten minutes, we lost Chris Dean to a head knock, but we dealt with that plus the anxiety of being in a four nil game. No matter what level you are playing at, to get a zero on the board with the defensive effort and the amount of work we had to get through is a real art.
“We’ve got lots of work to do with our attacking shape, but Kev (Brown) hasn’t played for a number of weeks, Lloyd White hasn’t and Danny Tickle hasn’t played for a number of weeks too, so there are lots of things we can do better.”
For a full match report from the game, read this week’s League Express, in stores now.
