Wild travelled to Solihull, greatly understrength to face the unbeaten league leaders. Injuries, work committments and unavailability left Widnes with selection difficulties. Following a hard physical contest in Sheffield, Wild were left with just eleven skaters and two netminders, including the returning Nicole Jackson.
Widnes applied early pressure with Brown, Hughes, Dipnall and Dunford all testing Hewitt. The pin point accurate passing of the Barons found Josh Bruce free to open the scoring in the 7th minute. Despite some sharp attacking play from the Widnes forwards, Barons went further ahead with goals in the 17th and 19th minutes from Eaton and .
The second period opened with Widnes silencing the big home crowd. Goals from Sam Dunford and then a long range rocket from Ben Brown inside the first three minutes, brought the travelling support to their feet. Despite a further Solihull goal, Wild created an opening for Matt Wainwright to blast home a high shot from the point in the 34th minute to put Widnes just a goal behind.. Wild continued to attack but a Barons breakout resulted in their fifth goal from Connor Hubbock at 34.54.
Three Barons goals in the 4th minute of the third period took the game away from Wild but roared on by the visiting supporters, they continued to press. After a 9th Solihull goal, Widnes fought back hard. Lee Pollitt finished smartly in the 48th minute and a 5th goal at 57.48 from Sam Dunford wrapped up the scoring. This was a superb performance from an understrength Wild - only the second team to score five goals against the Barons. The four goal margin was also the smallest margin of victory for the Barons this season. Full credit to the players who iced and put up such a magnificent show.
Report by Dick Gillingham
