It was our third game in a week and fatigue was obviously a factor but we did enough in the first

“It was our third game in a week and fatigue was obviously a factor but we did enough in the first 60 minutes to win the game.”Widnes, under the charge of caretaker coach Stuart Spruce following the dismissal of coach Neil Kelly, made a huge improvement from last week’s dismal display against Wigan. “The effort from last week to this week went up 100 per cent,” said Spruce. Costin, playing only his second game in the last seven after struggling with hamstring and back problems, was the pivotal figure, scoring one try, creating two more and kicking five goals.But the two points came at a cost for the Giants who lost the influential Stanley Gene with a suspected dislocated and fractured metatarsal bone in his foot. Huddersfield 26 – Widnes 20

Huddersfield Giants opened up a four-point gap ahead of Wakefield in the battle for the sixth play-off place, though they were holding on desperately at the end as Widnes mounted a spirited late revival.
Brandon Costin underlined his importance to the Giants with an inspirational display as they recovered from an early 2-10 deficit to move into a commanding 26-10 lead. Substitutes used: Hargreaves, Hansen, Hodgson, Beswick.Referee: R Smith (Castleford) .* Hull maintained their impressive form with a 38-18 win at Warrington yesterday. Substitutes used: Fitzpatrick, Jonkers, Johnson, Haggerty.Wigan: Radlinski; Carney, Aspinwall, Connolly, Dallas; Orr, Lam; C Smith, M Smith, Cassidy, Wild, Tickle, O’Loughlin. Orr, with another finely judged kick, was the creator.Salford replied with Anthony Stewart’s try but the outstanding Orr claimed his fourth assist, all from kicks to lay on Sean O’Loughlin’s late try.Brian Carney returned from a broken ankle for Wigan, lasting 63 minutes in his first game for four months and 18-year-old debut prop Bryn Hargreaves was impressive.Salford: Caine; Kirk, Littler, McGuinness, Stewart; Beverley, Clinch; Highton, Alker, Rutgerson, Shipway, Coley, Charles.

But teenager Harrison Hansen’s first senior try, ironically on the ground where his father Shane was a Salford favourite, kept the visitors in control. Orr then pulled out another kick from his repertoire, this time a wicked bouncer, and when Littler failed to gather Danny Tickle pounced to score.Wigan moved 22-6 ahead at the break when Sean O’Loughlin and Stephen Wild combined to outflank the home defence with Martin Aspinwall scoring in the corner.Salford spied hopes of a comeback when Clinch’s long pass enabled Cliff Beverley to usher Andy Johnson in at the corner. Orr, though, unlocked the home defence for the first time with an astute grubber-kick that he re-gathered to send Dallas over in the corner for his second try. Dallas’s opportunism and quick thinking, allied to his pace, was displayed as early as the seventh minute when he swooped on Stuart Littler’s attempted offload and raced away from just inside his own half.Salford went on to give Wigan’s defence a stern examination and got back on level terms through a Chris Charles penalty and an Andy Kirk try, the winger burrowing over by the flag after Gavin Clinch’s sharp pass. Wigan extended their unbeaten run to seven games with a highly satisfactory display at The Willows yesterday, Danny Orr’s inspirational display enabling them to shrug off the absence of five first-choice forwards.
With captain Andrew Farrell, hooker Terry Newton, Gareth Hock, Terry O’Connor and Danny Sculthorpe all on the sidelines, Wigan could have been tested but in Orr and Brett Dallas they had match-winners that Salford lacked.

Substitutes used: Snitch, Handforth, Ryder, Lima.Referee: I Smith (Oldham).. Substitutes used: Harris, Smith, Parker, Anderson.Wakefield: Halfpenny, Wainwright, Demetriou, Domic, Tadulala, Ellis, Jeffries, Field, March, Korkidas, Solomona, Applegarth, Spicer. Ellis did get over and, nine minutes from time, Rob Spicer took Ben Jeffries’ pass to make it anything but clear-cut for the Bulls.Deacon’s penalty, after Ellis went high off Harris, eased the pressure and Vainikolo’s try two minutes from time made sure it would be a winning reintroduction to rugby league.Bradford: Reardon, Pratt, Langley, Hape, Vainikolo, Pryce, Deacon, Vagana, Paul, Fielden, Swann, Peacock, Radford. It was a while before he became involved, although when he did there were some neat touches.Tadulala wasted a two-on-one chance provided by Solomona.