AN extraordinary game with an extraordinary sequence of events produced an extraordinary finish somewhere around 90 minutes of time since the game started, and saw Liverpool St Helens, quite literally, give the game away to Widnes, losing 27-24.

After turning in a poor performance in the first half and finding themselves 22-5 down at half time, LSH then looked like a different team in the second half as they clawed their way back to take a 22-24 lead with a bonus point fourth try scored by Dave Cunliffe, already deep into time added on.

Unfortunately an act of foul play spotted by the referee in the aftermath of the score brought a penalty against LSH, although the try and the conversion were allowed to stand.

The crowd then held their breath as the Widnes kicker planted the ball on the centre spot, took careful aim, kicked it full distance but saw it drift just wide of the left hand post, before going beyond the dead ball line.

With the game still not over, the ball was kicked into touch, but sadly for LSH, not drop-kicked and the referee awarded a scrum on the 22 to Widnes. Widnes won their own scrum and eschewing the drop goal option cleverly ran the ball down their left flank to score in the left hand corner. The conversion was missed, the score was 27-24, and the game finally ended.

And so a game dominated by Widnes in the first half and even more clearly by LSH in the second, with a great try from Matt Cunliffe as well as a second on the day for young Chris Hull, was settled with a disastrous sequence of events for LSH leading to them losing the game, for which they really have no-one else to blame but themselves.