Dewsbury Rams 'deserved' victory at Widnes Vikings

KEY TRIES: Andy Gabriel scored twice at the start of the second half as Dewsbury beat Widnes on Sunday.

The Rams led through a Paul Sykes penalty goal after four minutes and never relinquished their lead as they departed Widnes with all two points.

Joe Martin’s converted try gave the visitors an 8-0 advantage before Matty Smith hit back for the home side. Will Oakes scored in the corner for Dewsbury to restore their eight-point lead.

Lloyd Roby cut the gap to four points with a try on the stroke of half time but Gabriel claimed his first try two minutes into the second half to extend the visitors’ lead.

With 50 minutes on the clock, Gabriel latched onto a kick from Sykes to plant down out wide as the Rams defended their 14-point lead until Steve Tyrer added a try with three minutes to play to give the game a final score of 22-14 to the visitors.

“We deserved it over the 80 minutes and defended really well,” reflected Greenwood.

“In the first half, we had to withstand a lot of pressure as, after a decent start, we dropped a lot of ball so had a good patch where we just had to defend.

“I was disappointed with the try just before half time, just with the timing of it really.

“With the amount of ball we had gave them meant we probably were going to concede.

“But the start to the second half was good and that is probably the patch that won it against Whitehaven two weeks ago and it did the trick again.

"We defended solid in the second half and rode it out. Widnes scored a try with three minutes to go so that probably made it look tighter than what it actually was.”

Dewsbury have now won five of their last six Championship outings, including the three wins from the curtailed 2020 campaign. Greenwood was delighted by the defensive effort from his side, as the restricted Widnes to just one try in the entire second half.

“They were threatening in broken play but from actual attacking play, I can’t think of too many chances they had apart from the try they did score,” he added.

“That was pleasing. It showed that what we are doing on the training ground is working. Every week is a different challenge, it is just about looking onto the next one now.”