Widnes 64 London Broncos 10: Tickle and Brown lead Widnes to 11-try win over London

Danny Tickle piled up 24 points on his debut, with captain Kevin Brown and half-back partner Joe Mellor also in top form in the 11-try romp, but Betts acknowledged there would be trickier assignments ahead.

“It’s going to get much tougher than this, and we have Huddersfield, Salford and Leeds in our next three matches,” he said.

“Everyone expected us to beat London, who have a tough year ahead with a young group of players put together so late.

“But we showed plenty of character and scored some fantastic tries.”

Man of the match Brown grabbed a hat-trick of tries, with Mellor also crossing and Stefan Marsh and Chris Dean notching a brace apiece as the Vikings stormed to the top of the Super League.

The Broncos, with nine new faces on parade, shook Widnes by taking the lead through a Mason Caton-Brown try.

But the Broncos fell apart with the Vikings running in five first-half tries to lead 30-6 at the break.

Tickle, the close-season signing from Hull, marked his debut with a try and 10 goals from 11 shots.

The 30-year-old also reached the milestone of 2,000 career points and set a new Super League goals record for Widnes, who swept to their biggest win in the Super League era.

Betts added: “Kevin Brown will take the plaudits, and deservedly so.

“But Joe Mellor was tireless as was Rhys Hanbury at full-back and Paddy Flynn was exceptional with the ball in his hands.

“Danny Tickle was full of confidence, but he is far more than a goal-kicker. He works so hard and I know how good he is.”

London coach Tony Rea selected nine new faces, including prop Carl Forster – on loan from St Helens – having lost the bulk of last year’s squad.

“I am happy to be on the start line but this is a big learning curve,” Rea said.

“We clearly weren’t ready, but need to move on from here.

“I will take a fair lump of the blame, but there has been a lot of chopping and changing.

“We will be adding to the squad, but these players can do better.”

Widnes: Hanbury, Flynn, Marsh, Dean, Owens, K. Brown, Mellor, Joseph, White, Gerrard, Galea, Tickle, Cahill. Substitutes: Craven, Johnson, Isa, Leuluai.

London Broncos: Mataitonga, Atkins, Caton-Brown, Minns, O’Callaghan, Gigot, Bishay, Forster, Moore, Krasniqi, McMeeken, Cook, Foster. Substitutes: Cunningham, Lovell, Griffin, Wicks.

Referee: T Roby (RFL).