Francis Cummins urges Widnes Vikings to keep fighting

Widnes' interim head coach Francis Cummins says the Vikings will refuse to throw in the towel until avoiding relegation is mathematically impossible.

Cummins' side registered their first victory since March 22 as they edged past Halifax 26-12 in the Super 8s Qualifiers.

Widnes will need a further two wins against Toronto Wolfpack and Hull KR and other results to go their way to give themselves a Super League lifeline. It is a tall order but Cummins is up for the fight.

"Until you can't do it we will keep going," said the interim head coach. "We should have won last week [against Leeds] but our goal is winning the last two games.

"We have to make sure next week that we put our best performance in. I can see the change and the pressure release from the players. We will have to play better and I expect them to be better next week.

"Hull KR went there [to Toronto] and got a win and we can go over there and do the same."

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The former Bradford head coach issued a shot at other Super League clubs, however, after he claimed some of his players have already been targeted for

"There's people speaking to our players," he said. "The win has been a long time coming. The victory song was sang and I don't think half the players knew all the words.

"We were not at the level we were at last week. Generally we were good. We are looking for a team performance and I was happy with how it went apart from the final 10 or 15 minutes.

"We knew if we gave them ball they would score tries so we made sure we kept the tempo. I'm happy with the two points. I don't think we were ever clinging on."

Halifax head coach Richard Marshall felt his players missed a golden chance to beat "desperate" Widnes.

"It was an opportunity lost as I thought we could come here and win," he said. "Let's not get this out of context - we could have won this game and we failed to do so.

"We lost Simon Grix before the game and that affected our plan and what we were doing. We had to change a few things around.

"We nearly made a great start as we went over but I've not seen the try back and going over would have given us confidence.

"There wasn't a lot of difference between the two sides but we found ways to help them as we made some poor errors and defensive reads and got punished.

"We did put ourselves back in it and we had our chances but we have come up a bit short.

"We were physical defensively; Dan Fleming and Brandon Moore threw themselves around. Scott Murrell played with an injured thumb and some young players stepped in. It's difficult for a part-time club at this stage of the season.

"Widnes were desperate and they had to win it. Krisnan Inu came up with some big plays for them and he was very strong and we struggled to hold him.

"Joe Mellor was dangerous too at the back. If we play them again, we know what to expect."