Vikings left feeling wooden

Play-off bound Warrington consigned Widnes to Super League's wooden spoon with a resounding 51-4 triumph at the Stobart Stadium.

The Vikings, needing a win at home to climb above Castleford in the standings, were at one stage level at six points apiece in the local derby.

However the Wolves scored 10 tries and the winning margin would have been even more convincing had they not missed four first-half conversion attempts.

Chris Riley and Mickey Higham each grabbed a brace of touchdowns for Tony Smith's men as this year's Carnegie Challenge Cup winners warmed up for next Saturday's home clash with St Helens.

Cahill missing

Warrington had the luxury of resting skipper Brett Hodgson, Garreth Carvell, Trent Waterhouse and brothers Michael and Joel Monaghan, while Ben Westwood was still out with after a knee injury.

Chris Riley, David Solomona and Tyrone McCarthy asll returned as Warrington aimed for their seventh win in the last eight league outings.

It was Widnes who made a flying start with Frank Winterstein going over in the corner after four minutes from Jon Clarke's short pass on the blind-side.

Rhys Hanbury booted the touchline conversion but Warrington were back on level terms after 10 minutes when Higham burrowed over from dummy half and Lee Briers tagged on the goal.

The Vikings, who had lost all five derby meetings since 2004, were certainly not overawed, however, staying on level terms thanks to try-saving tackles by Paddy Flynn on firstly Stefan Ratchford and then Riley.

But Briers' long ball out to Simon Grix allowed Chris Bridge to hand Rhys Williams a walk-in try midway through the first half to open up a 10-6 advantage.

Ratchford kicked ahead for Riley to go over after 28 minutes for the 100th try of his career and the creator turned to score for Warrington's next, accepting Solomona's inside pass to cross.

Riley double

Solomona himself added Warrington's fifth try just before the break to make it 22-6 at half-time with Riley supporting Matty Blythe's break straight after the restart to bag his second.

Hooker Paul McShane notched the Vikings' second try but was injured in the process and forced to hobble off with a leg injury.

He had to watch on as the Wolves continued to pile on the points in the closing quarter, starting with Higham collecting his second try of the afternoon from a Williams kick to make it 40-10.

Rhys Hanbury did get a consolation effort in front of a 8,617 crowd - the Vikings' biggest of the season - but Ryan Atkins and Paul Wood added further tries for the away team, with Solomona booting the final conversion.