WIDNES VIKINGS 32, SWINTON LIONS 18: The Lions' road to Cardiff came to an early end at the Halton Stadium, but they gave their all and for long periods of the game had the Vikings on the back foot in this Challenge Cup fourth round clash.

However, the Super League side took the lead in the third minute when Paul Crook sent a cross-kick through the Lions defence, and Daniel Frame was on hand to collect the bouncing ball to score by the posts; Crook added the simple goal points.

The Lions hit back four minutes later when Wayne English fed Danny Heaton who raced through the Vikings defence to send Marlon Billy on a 60 metre run for the try line.

There was another chance for the Lions in the tenth minute when Ian Watson sent a kick over the Vikings line, with English in hot persuit Holmes had to boot it dead.

Watson kicked a superb 40/20 in the 18th minute and from the resulting pressure the Lions were awarded a penalty for holding down and Marsh made no mistake with the kick.

The Vikings second try came in the 23rd minute when Crook sent Manu in at the corner despite an excellent tackle on Mick Cassidy by Lee Patterson during the build up, but Crook could not convert.

They scored another try three minutes later when Mark Smith put out a nice pass for Cassidy to crash over by the posts and Crook converted to give the Vikings some daylight.

From a Widnes goal-line drop out the Lions applied pressure and Paul Southern went close; from the play-the-ball Phil Joseph found his way over for a typical hookers' try and Marsh added the goal points to put the Lions only four points behind at the break.

They camped on the Vikings line for the first five minutes of the second half when time and time again the home side were forced to kick the ball dead in goal.

The next Vikings try came in the 51st minute when a flowing move saw Manu go over in the corner from Moule's pass, but Crook could not add the difficult conversion.

A fight broke out on 56 minutes when Oldham stole the ball in the tackle on Smith and the Vikings man took exception to it, with the home side being awarded a penalty.

From the resulting pressure the ball moved out to the right and Frame went over for his second try and Crook converted.

The Lions had yet another chance four minutes later when Patterson broke through, but his pass to Oldham was too low to the ground and the winger lost control.

Billy grabbed his second try of the match 13 minutes from time when he latched onto a good pass from Warren Ayres and he went over in the corner and Marsh added the goal points to bring the Lions back into it.

The Vikings only made the game safe four minutes from time when a large overlap on the right allowed Holmes to score in the corner and Rowlands added the goal points to secure victory for his side.

Lions: English, Oldham, Patterson, Maye, Billy, Coates, Watson, Southern, Joseph, Rogers, Heaton, Russell, Marsh. Subs: Ayres, Irwin, Gardner, Whittaker.

Ian Rigg