Vikings head coach Denis Betts is keen to strengthen the Club’s links with Newcastle Thunder following the successful pre-season friendly on Saturday.
Following on from the huge success of last year’s Magic Weekend at St James’ Park, Widnes returned to the city to face the League 1 outfit at Kingston Park, running out 34-8 winners.
Betts said: “One of the reasons we came up here is we’re trying to forge further links. It’s a great sporting area and we’re proud to be associated with Newcastle.
“We’re coming back up again in a few months for Magic, so we would like to continue to have a relationship with Thunder.
“I’ve been speaking to their new head coach, Mick Mantelli, and there’ll be links between the two clubs that go on.”
A 1,231 strong crowd, including a fantastic travelling contingent from Widnes, saw the Vikings go 22-0 up by half time thanks to tries from Ryan Ince, Jordan Johnstone, Brad Walker and Josh Houghton.
Stand-off Joe Lyons added a brace in the second half, and Betts was proud to see the progress that the Club’s youngsters have made.
He added: “This is an example of what we’ve tried to promote at this Club. We’ve built from the bottom. The Academy wasn’t good enough five years ago, and we took some hidings but we’ve stuck at it, added better quality players and they’ve travelled up here and got a good win.
“I need to see where these lads are. I needed to see how they could handle that bit of extra physical presence. Some of them have never played against open age opposition, and they’ve played in front of a half decent crowd here too. It helps to show the way they cope with certain situations.”
Stronghold Members can now get their FREE Magic Weekend ticket by exchanging the voucher in their Stronghold Membership pack for a day or weekend pass at the Vikings Superstore.
The Vikings are next in action this Sunday, at home to Halifax (3pm). Tickets are available now priced
Stronghold Members Price
Adult £10
Concession £8
Junior £3
General Ticket Price
Adult £14
Concession £11
Junior £6
