And, not for the first time this season, it was the Patient brother – Jamie and Will – who led the way, scoring three of the five tries on offer, with the other five pointers coming from Jack Krause and scrum half Ciaron O’Donnell.

It was a satisfactory response from the ‘red-and-blacks’ who were keen to redeem themselves after a disappointing showing at Audenshaw Park on the opening day of the season.

For the visitors; they began the game brightly enough - taking the lead with a penalty after just 15 minutes - but overall, their attacking prowess was blunted in the face of some strong and committed Wids defence who will have been happy to have kept their line intact over the full eighty minutes.

The horrible wet, windy and freezing cold conditions, meant that this game was never destined to be a classic, and the opening minutes were all a bit scrappy with lots of mistakes from both teams.

The visitors got their noses in front after 15 minutes, when stand-off Sam Farrell converted a penalty.

After that frustrating opening, things finally began to come right for the home side, and on 27 minutes a sequence of quick hands got Jack Krause over in the corner for a try which put Widnes into the lead.

The Wids then introduced Arnie Haydock and Tom O’Neill into the fray, and it wasn’t long before the home side were rewarded with a second try from all action wing forward Will Patient, who got onto the end of a Krause break.

This time, Josh Salter was on target to make the score 12pts – 3 in favour of the home side.

As the half drew to a close, Salter was then narrowly wide of the mark with a penalty before the referee brought an end to the first forty minutes.

The home side were keen to maintain their momentum as the second half got underway, but it took them a further twenty minutes before a long-range Widnes attack ended with Jamie Patient bouncing off a would-be defender to dive over for his side’s third try of the afternoon.

Despite the difficult and testing conditions, Josh Salter then booted over an excellent touchline conversion to make it 19 – 3.

The visitors then had a spell on attack, but the home side were able to deal with the threat and clear the danger.

In what was a frantic last few minutes, more impressive build up work and crisp handling sent in Jamie Patient over the line for his second try of the afternoon, before the visitors then lost a player into the sin-bin.

With the extra man at their disposal, Widnes were soon able to add a fifth try through scrum half Ciaron O’Donnell, with the boot of Josh Salter doing the rest before the referee finally brought an end to proceedings.

Head coach Andy McIntosh said afterwards “In difficult conditions we put in an 80 minute committed performance again and restricted a good side to only three points.

At times we didn’t quite capitalise on the field position we had but in very cold conditions the effort and enthusiasm from the lads today was great. Taking a bonus point win and some confidence going into next week’s last league game with LSH.

We face the league leaders next week and we can expect an almighty tussle as ever in a game which is always well contested”.

Widnes: J Krause, T Spencer, L Lawton, G Hatton, J Salter, C O’Donnell, M Lawton, B Mercer, S Whitty, M Garrity, A Duggan, K Arndell, W Patient, M Jones (c). Reps: A Haydock, T O’Neill, R Millington,