WIDNES went down to an agonising 20-18 defeat at Castleford Tigers as the home side scored from the last play of the game to snatch the spoils.

With time virtually up, Vikings were hanging on to an 18-16 lead they had established just a few minutes earlier when winger Paddy Flynn had latched onto a Rhys Hanbury kick to score his second try of the game.

It was ironic and perhaps just a little unjust that it was Flynn's mistake which gave Castleford one last chance after he spilled a Luke Gale bomb under no real pressure.

From the resulting scrum, Cas had their last throw of the dice and Gale's chip out wide was scooped up by winger Denny Solomona who crossed at the flag.

Flynn shouldn't be too harsh on himself as he'd had another fine game, effectively nullifying the threat of opposite number Justin 'the beast' Carney.

Indeed it was Flynn who opened the scoring for Vikings on six minutes with a powerful finish from Kevin Brown's long pass.

The home side hit back on the back of a Widnes handling error. A miscommunication in midfield between Joe Mellor and Danny Tickle saw the latter fumble and Nathan Massey scooped up the spill before sending stand-off Ben Roberts racing in from 20 metres with Gale converting to give his side a 6-4 lead.

An attempted Brown 40/20 was prevented by Solomona but he only succeeded in patting the ball into the path of Widnes centre Cameron Phelps. Solomona did well to get back and make a try-saving tackle but from the resulting pressure full back Hanbury crossed for Vikings with Brown again supplying the money ball.

Danny Tickle's angled goal gave Widnes a 10-6 advantage but it was short-lived.

A Gale kick early in the tackle count caught the Vikings defence flat-footed and in an eerie dress rehearsal of what was to come Solomona pounced for a four-pointer to level things up.

Three minutes before the break, Brown sent Stefan Marsh slicing through and though the former Wigan speedster was stopped by a Luke Dorn tackle, Widnes scored from the next play when Phelps' short kick saw Brown react first to touch down and send Vikings in to the dressing rooms 14-10 to the good.

Coach Denis Betts made numerous changes during the interval and for a while Widnes seemed to lose their way.

Castleford took the lead whn Liam Finn finished off a Michael Shenton break on 44 minutes.

The game entered a period of stalemate with chances few and far between as both sides concentrated on completing their sets.

It looked like that stalemate had been broken decisively in the Vikings favour when Flynn pounced for his second try on 76 minutes but Tigers had other ideas.

Castleford: Dorn; Solomona, Gibson, Shenton, Carney; Roberts, Gale; Lynch, Moore, Millington, Holmes, McMeekn, Massey. Subs: Boyle, Milner, Wheeldon, Finn, Tansey, Crossley, Webster.

Widnes: Hanbury; Flynn, Marsh, Phelps, Ah Van; Brown, Mellor; Dudson, White, O'Carroll, Galea, Tickle, Isa. Subs: Joseph, Hulme, Gilmore, Cahill, Kavanagh, Leuluai, Manuokafoa, Craven, Dean, Gerrard, Heremaia, Clarkson, Gore.

Referee: B Thaler

Attendance: 2.141