Gaskell looked very assured. Hinchy looked great, some nice touches from leeming but a couple of times he tried too hard. ferguson ran hard but some poor decision making by him a few times (and that pass to smurph was a mile forward.), ikahihifo enjoyed himself -and put in some big minutes, symonds looked good. Leroy proved his captaincy, jerry looked strong but was turned yet again on that wing defensively, mellor didn't shine but did nothing wrong-limited opportunity, wakeman again limited opportunity, didn't notice clough was on until they announced he was coming off,

Yo Paulus not understanding the grabbing defence on our right edge that let's in easy tries.Seen it all too often,yeah we know who they are they are so much more skillful than the left edge,so does that just excuse their soft 'd'

It's been going on too long now.

Think that pretty much how I saw it too.

Mellor looks to have potential and size.

Leroy was an excellent centre last night - one try and two v good assists.

Great evening - besides M62 roadworks coming back - ho this morning.

Sure Salford will be a sterner test - Widnes bottom of SL for me this season

That game will have done Gaskell the world of good especially mentally. Not played for 8 months and was safe as you like in his first game back in super league.

Looking like Symonds will be out so Roberts will get more minutes v Salford.

Good position to be in to still have Smith, Mason, O Brien, Rapira and Mamo to come into the side when needed.

I would really not rush Rapira and Mamo back as we should have enough in the locker room to see off Salford and Wakefield at home (My opinion) neither game will be easy but we should be looking to win both games at home.

I was impressed with Gaskell. If you look at the way Widnes play that pitch they play it completely differently to the norm on the last tackle- no high bombs for the FB to drop

they deliberately kick it so it bounces, I remember Murphy having an awful time with that one year but Gaskell dealt with everything they threw at him brilliantly. Mamo may find himself on the wing when fit- which is no bad thing- if he'd been out there last night we would probably have scored two more with his pace!

Great result that for you guys 2 points away from home, Widnes is never easy. I will be watching Wakey at your place when I get back from Africa looking forward to that game should be good.

Hope folk don't get too carried away. We weren't totally horrendous but we weren't brilliant. Widnes had little strike power and were missing key forwards. Play like that too many times this season and we will be beaten by quite a few sides. - having said that the first game of the season away, on that pitch, can't have been easy for the boys. Some possibly never played on a 3g pitch (mellor? wakeman?) others rarely.
Two points is two points but a long way to go and improvements must be made.

What do you want ?? That was far better than last season when you were spinning the 'back the boys line' !!

We played a lot of debutants last night and they will need time to gel.

But all in all you can only beat what's in front of you and six tries to three two of which were really consolations during a period when the referee and touch judge had a brainstorm was a sound enough victory for me.

The starting 13 played over half an hour which was a good sign and is Clough the new Grix ?? For someone to say they didn't know he was on the field is ridiculous our section thought he ran in hard and took some stopping ??

Thought Gaskell looked the business last night and if we can keep him fit could be a real asset

All in all we looked better than Leeds or Saints the night before and it's one win we didn't have last year so job done fair performance move on to next week.

As i said on the drive home last night when we had our usual blip we would have lost that game last year, we showed resolve to not buckle under pressure and see the game out, last year we failed to do that on a number of occasions.

Confidence will be up getting a good result on that pitch.

I agree with Jools in the respect its nothing to get carried away about but a win is a win - more than we got there last year.

Widnes and Leigh will 100% be bottom 2 this year. They have lost Brown and not replaced. No Joe Mellor for 3 months and played 30 mins without Tom Gilmore.

Yes they did get alot of decisions in the 2nd half and I believe the Ref did gift them 2 tries pretty much and its very hard to play on the I pitch and they do play it well - cannot see them winning 1 away game at all (seriously) and may only pick up wins at home v Salford, Leigh & Wakey.

That was not our best 17 and I believe we will get much better. Wakeman will improve week on week. Mamo will add much needed pace. We have good replacement in Gaskell to cover the halves and FB and have excellent depth in McIntosh for the FB role too now. O Brien to cover hooking duties and good prop rotation as well.

I have a sneaky feeling we might see Mamo on the wing initially aswell.

I though Paul Clough made some good yards last night - would still like to see Mason in against Salford though - Mason is playing for Oldham this week.

Good to hear Gaskell did well, I feel his value at the Giants will be his abillity to play a few positions. I wasn't there so can't comment on the game but it sounded a reasonable start, Next week will give a better idea and we shall have had another week to gel.

excellant start to the season, not many will go to widnes and win on that pitch!

got abit worried when they went 6-0 up but after that its was all one way, ikahihifo and taai are beasts in the prop department for us running hard and direct...ikahihifo in particular was a handful,...just like in his pre season games against bulls and wire.

was surprised when gaskell got the nod ahead of mcintosh at full back but its turn out to be a great move as gaskell was very good, for his first game in such a long time you can see what skill he possesses. he will add alot to the attack for us.

hinchy played longer at hooker than i expected, still not sure about him playing there.

the ref tried his best to get widnes back into it, one of there tries in the second half was a clear knock on!

one big disappointment was the loss of symonds with a knee injury, pray its not too serious and he back soon,

got caught out by the mway roadworks again






oh and cudjoe mom for me, 2 try assists and a try.
i noticed also lastnight how hard the team was working for eachother and we cut down in the pens , no silly offsides etc which burdened us last year

I thought Paul Clough was excellent last night. Made the hard yards.

Thought Widnes tribute to fans and past players was a lovely touch.

The win was all important last night. A great result to build confidence going forward. A loss would have started to bring back all the negativity we experienced last season.

Salford will be smarting and looking to make amends. We owe them one from last season. I think this game will get tasty...

Good first hit out and all showed up well. Thought that Brough and Brierley linked nicely, Gaskell and Mellor showed promise with neither looking out of place. Big drives from the forwards too with Seb the standout. Leroy was best player by far but Danny ran him very close.

Glad to have git the visit to Widnes out of the way early. Now we can look to build some momentum with our run of home games.

Overall quite happy so far but tougher tests will come as will our plays gelling better. Always good to win the first game so no complaints.

Will be looking forward to Thursday now - COYG

And if we win Thursday we top the table for at least a week!

Just to add - there were no more than 4500 Widnes fans at the first game of the season last night- no doubt some opposition fan will make some sarcastic comment about the fact I've mentioned it- but if that was the other way round there would have been a dozen comments from the opposition about our poor crowds.

yep , just seems to stick and follow us round this crowd thing, hopefully crabtree can try change the apathy towards our club abit.

the widnes season tickets must have been a hard sell this time round, lost their star player and brought no one of note in, but i like they way that have steadily built as a club over the years reminds me of the giants in many ways.

Everyone else is allowed to use the excuses we get hammered for, it's how it works.

Huddersfield have crap crowds everyone elses are fine and justified !!

Only time i noticed them was when the scroats were scrapping with the stewards and letting flares off - at a home game, while losing to last year's bottom team, jeez it must be rough for them if that's how they get their kicks !

To be fair I think a lot of giants fans talk about our crowds more now than our opposition fans do. I read or hear more defensive comments about our crowds when nobody has even mentioned it from other clubs. IF ANYTHING I hear opposition fans praising how well behaved and noisy we are more often than not.

rife on social media, especially after a giants win!

wait for it after thursdays game..

the new one seems to be 'are we bradford in disguise'..... plenty of bulls fans taking a keen interest in us this season!

Let them take an interest, before long they'll be new fans

hoping we may convert a few! alot will be from hudds anyway!