WIDNES Vikings stand-off Anthony Thackeray insists he and his teammates must ‘step things up’ if they are to have any chance of getting through to the Semi-Final of the Northern Rail Cup tonight against favourites Barrow.

Thackeray and Widnes face the Raiders in a re-run of their competitive and dramatic Cup Final of 2009 and he says the Vikings have to improve following three consecutive defeats in the Co-operative Championship.

He said: “We’ve got our backs against the wall a bit at the moment, and are coming off a few bad results.

“We’re going to have to really turn it up if we’re going to get to the semis. We have had a lot of injuries and that does take its toll, but at the start of the season we were still picking up wins.

“But we don’t want to make excuses – we just haven’t been good enough.

“We’ve got to get together as a team and as a group of lads, and there’s no better way to do that than to get a win against good opponents.

“It’s a really important game for us, and hopefully we can get a job done.”

The Vikings were 34-18 victors at Bloomfield Road last year, guaranteeing themselves the right to apply for an Engage Super League licence in the process and Thackeray says he has fond memories of the huge after party in Widnes.

“I don’t remember too much about playing in it – the main thing I remember is the end of game celebrations, the good memories,” said Thackeray.

“It’s up there in my top three career highlights. The main one was making my debut in Super League for my hometown club Hull – but last year’s Northern Rail Cup win was on a par with winning the National League One Grand Final with Castleford, definitely.

“The Northern Rail Cup’s like a mini Challenge Cup.

“It’s a chance for teams outside of Super League to get their hands on some silverware – you don’t get too many of those,” added the former Castleford Tigers and Hull FC half-back.

“The fans turn out at Blackpool, it’s always a hot day in July, and it just makes for a great event.”