Tries from Liam Harris, Connor Bailey, Joe Brown, Ata Hingano and Ben Jones-Bishop saw York across the line against the Vikings for the second time in three weeks, despite having to play the final stages of the game with 12 men after Jesse Dee’s sin-bin.
Widnes hit back through Mike Butt in the first half and Ryan Ince in the second, and though they delivered a far improved performance from their 1895 Cup quarter-final defeat earlier this month, they could not find another way through a gutsy defensive display from the Knights.
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“I don’t think it was our most polished display in terms of clinical-ness and skill execution,” said Applegarth. “But I think, since I’ve been at the club, it’s definitely up there with one of the best we’ve shown for character and resilience.
“I thought how we defended in that second half, especially when we were doing three or four sets at a time, serves us really well going into the second half of the year.
“I’m really proud of how the lads showed up for one another. I thought it was a real gutsy display defensively.
“Credit to Widnes, they threw everything at us, they’re wanting to get their season going, and it was a tough win.
“I think some people thought at half time that we might go a bit blow-away, but we knew that they were going to come out firing.
“We can be a lot more clinical in certain things, but I’m really proud of our defensive application and how we went about that.”
Bailey then doubled their tally 10 minutes later, stretching out a hand to score from close range after Kieran Buchanan had managed to get an offload away as he was tackled.
An error from the end-of-set kick opened the door for Widnes to send Butt in at the right corner, but York crucially hit back shortly before half time, a neat show of hands playing in Brown to score to the left of the posts.
The Knights passed up early opportunities to extend their lead in the second half but did find another way through on 50 minutes, Hingano skipping through a gap from 10 metres after a lung-busting Kieran Hudson drive.
Dee’s sin-bin for a tip tackle with just less than 15 minutes remaining left York a man down for most of the remainder of the match, with Widnes capitalising immediately to send Ince over out wide.
The Vikings sensed a comeback, throwing the kitchen sink at the Knights, but found their attack thwarted time and time again.
But it was the hosts’ day, with a desperate, looping, Hingano cut-out pass releasing Jones-Bishop to dive in at the corner to seal a hard-fought win.
He explained: “We’ve all been on the end of those results, and we know how it feels and how you want to correct it next time you come up against that team that’s done it to you.
“We were expecting exactly what we got today, and it’ll serve us really well going into this next period of games that concludes with the semi-final before we get that week off.
“Widnes will be up there at the end of the year. Allan [Coleman, Widnes coach] has been doing it tough with injuries and a few changes coming here and there, so we knew they were going to come out firing today.
“I thought at times we played a little bit patchy with the ball in hand and I don’t think our execution was down there in terms of when we had opportunities on their try-line.
“But I was over the moon with how we went about backing up our errors and you can’t ask more than that, can you? Not every game is going to be a nice fluent game from your ball in hand, but as long as your defensive standards stay where they need to be, you can cop it.”
