The Liam Farrell Column: We know Vikings will be tough

We weren’t great with the ball in the opening half and our completion rate was not high, but we made some metres and caused them some trouble.

We got a lot of quick play the balls and I think that took a bit of juice out of Leeds.

So I don’t think it was a case of us turning it on for the last half hour, because if you delve deeper, we were able to do that because of the work we did leading up to that point.

In that respect, it was a bit of a grinding win.

Leeds didn’t come and roll over, they are missing some players but I’m still convinced they’ll come good soon.

They’ve got players trying hard – Zak Hardaker was really pushing for them – and once the quality they have is complemented by a few others returning from injury, they’ll be right up there.

For us, it was great to keep our winning run going especially considering it was against a strong side, and we had some disruption before the game.

I wasn’t sure if I was able to play – I’ve been nursing a minor injury – and Nick Gregson was on stand-by to play all week.

But before the game I felt okay and I got the nod to play.

About the same time, George Williams withdrew, so Nick still got his chance.

He only got 10 minutes at the end of the game but he’ll remember that – I remember everything from my debut.

It was great to see his dad in the dressing room afterwards, too, and he got to hear his son lead our winning song. I bet he’ll never forget that.

Widnes have done really well so far this year – and there’s every reason to think they will raise their game another notch against us tonight.

Why? Because every time we face a side with ex-Wigan players in their side, they seem to lift.

I suppose it’s human nature, and Widnes have more of our former players than most.

Kev Brown is a big player for them, and his combination with Joe Mellor and Rhys Hanbury is looking really sharp and their attacking shape is good.

They like spreading the ball to the edges – their wingers scored five tries between them last week – and so it should be a really good test of our defensive structure. We’ve been happy with the way our season has started but we still know we’ve much more to give, particularly in attack.

We have been improving, and I’m confident it’ll click into place soon.

Liam Farrell was talking to Phil Wilkinson