{"id":552939,"date":"2026-04-27T08:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T08:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552939\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T08:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T08:13:18","slug":"big-match-preview-halifax-panthers-h","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552939\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Match Preview: Halifax Panthers (H)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">After four consecutive games on the road, Widnes Vikings return home this Sunday to face Halifax Panthers in Round 11 of the Betfred Championship (3pm kick-off).<\/p>\n<p>Back-to-back wins against Dewsbury Rams in league and cup have given Allan Coleman\u2019s side some momentum heading into Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p>And next up they face off against a Panthers side looking for an immediate response following their narrow defeat at Championship joint-leaders Barrow Raiders a week ago.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f\u00a0Ticket information<\/p>\n<p>Tickets are available for the game <a href=\"https:\/\/widnesvikings.co.uk\/tickets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Supporters can also pick up their tickets on Sunday at the Vikings club shop, which will be open from midday until kick-off.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcf0 Squad news<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37068\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_Squad.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1512\" height=\"928\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\ud83e\udd4a The opposition<\/p>\n<p>Having been issued with a 12-point deduction following the club\u2019s takeover and subsequent reformation, Halifax Panthers currently sit bottom of the Championship table.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, they have won three of their seven games played.<\/p>\n<p>A number of players from the previous iteration of Halifax committed to the new club, as did head coach Kyle Eastmond, although there are several new faces in their squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Halifax Panthers 21-man squad: Will Calcott, Darius Carter, Ben Crooks, Connor Davies, Curtis Davies, Jacob Fairbank, Ben Forster, Delaine Gittens, Vila Halafihi, Alfie Lindsey, Owen McCarron, Zack McComb, Jimmy Morgan, Adam O\u2019Brien, Hugo Salabio, Jesse Soric, Riley Thompson, Ben Tibbs, Ben Will.<\/p>\n<p>\u23ea Record against Halifax<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Vikings are unbeaten in their last three home games against Halifax, scoring 40+ points in two of those games.<\/p>\n<p>However, when the sides last met at the DCBL Stadium, it proved to be an enthralling Championship affair as the Panthers recovered from 16-0 down to earn themselves a share of the spoils in a 24-24 draw.<\/p>\n<p>The last meeting between the two sides was a similarly entertaining contest, with Halifax weathering a Vikings fightback to win 16-14 back in September.<\/p>\n<p>Last five meetings:<\/p>\n<p>Halifax 16-14 Widnes (Championship R25, 7\/9\/25)<br \/>\nWidnes 24-24 Halifax (Championship R13, 15\/6\/25)<br \/>\nHalifax 20-24 Widnes Championship R16, 21\/7\/24)<br \/>\nWidnes 40-14 Halifax (Championship R4, 14\/4\/24)<br \/>\nHalifax 26-28 Widnes (Championship R23, 27\/8\/23)<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f Kieran Taylor looks ahead to home clash against Halifax<\/p>\n<p>Vikings centre Kieran Taylor previews Sunday\u2019s Round 11 clash with the Panthers at the DCBL Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfc9 Officials<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The referee for this fixture is Ryan Cox.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcf2 Follow the game with the Vikings<\/p>\n<p>Are you not going to be with us? You can keep updated with the Vikings\u2019 official club coverage!<\/p>\n<p>Vikings fans will be able to get full updates through our match coverage on our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WidnesRL\" rel=\"nofollow\">official X account<\/a> \u2013 your hub to find out all the key news, including matchday line-ups, live game updates and post-game coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After four consecutive games on the road, Widnes Vikings return home this Sunday to face Halifax Panthers in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-552939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}