A sigh of relief, but Wembley is in sight

A Challenge Cup quarter final vs Widnes was never going to be easy, and so it proved. A consecutive 20-18 win was enough to scrape past our bitter rivals and into the semi-final draw.

I thought it would be a hard fought contest, but when Jack Hughes broke through the line early on, there was hope that it could be an easy win for Warrington and we could open up their defence. That hope was slowly eroded in the following half an hour as a series of errors let Widnes back in, and allowed them to score two tries from sloppy defensive work. Things could have been different for the Wolves had Kevin Penny not scored a try just before half time.

Far too often Warrington have found themselves playing poorly and not managing to gain any momentum together, especially in adverse conditions. After the momentum stuttered following the first try, I feared the night might slip away from us. One negative of the last few seasons has been the lack of ability to recover our composure after a poor start, usually if we start badly, we keep playing badly until the full-time whistle. This kind of play was shown in the Hull FC match where the annoyances of inconsistency and poor play in bad weather lead to a horrible loss.

While Warrington were never at their fluent best, they did however recover in this one to just about get the win. The difference maker once again was the energetic and brilliant Brad Dwyer. Ever since his loan return he has proved himself to be a brillant player and is starting to become of of our most important players. Earlier in the season he was injured at a similar time to Chris Sandow and the talk at the time was how would Warrington cope without the Australian. Dwyer’s absence was a critical blow as well, and it led to a period of struggle for Warrington. In Michael Monaghan and Mickey Higham, Tony Smith had a brilliant pair of hookers who were able to win many games for the club. In Daryl Clark and Dwyer it seems like once again Smith can call one two hookers who are able to provide energy and genius in the position.

Dwyer’s play enabled Warrington to get six points ahead, a six points that was nullified by a Widnes response, but proved to be the difference when Kurt Gidley kicked a penalty to win the match for the second game in a row.

The win has set up a semi-final tie against Wakefield which represents a great chance for Warrington to get back to Wembley for the first time in four years, after winning the trophy three times in four years in 2009, 2010 and 2012. It was the easiest team out of the draw, but a team that should be respected, especially after their 36 - 28 victory over us last month.

The final whistle brought out a huge sense of relief after a difficult game, but thankfully Warrington are through and the dream of a great double is still alive. Another trip to Wembley is very close, a trip we have been missing for a few seasons now.