PAUL Cullen has switched Vikings’ training sessions to evenings and cancelled many of what he classes as ‘peripheral’ activities in his fight to put the club back on track.

Widnes’ defeat at Batley on Sunday was their fourth reverse in their last five encounters, but Cullen has put in place measures that will give the team a harder edge.

The Vikings boss says he is now doing what he was brought in to fix – declaring that club needs to re-discover its honesty.

Cullen said: “I am here to fix the problems behind the scenes at the club which are obviously translated on to the field with the performances of the first team.

“There is a long term fight at this club to get it back on track. It tries to be something that it can’t afford and can’t sustain and part of my remit here is to get it on track.

“What I have found here is that there is an attempt to exist as a full time professional club and it is all peripheral, all show and does not really add up to much.

“It is not an easy quick fix but if I am cancelling post-match spa sessions, breakfast clubs, daily massages and dismantling the internet café – all the peripherals that the players like because they pretend to be Super League full time players - then I am obviously going to put a lot of noses out of joint. But so be it, because this club has to re-find its honesty.

“I have stopped the lot because it does not make us play any better.

“All it does is make us a little bit softer around the edges and that is being used by our opponents as a very direct weapon.”

Training By moving training from mornings to evenings, Cullen expects a greater consistency with numbers attending training.

It will also overcome the problems associated with a first team squad made up of nine full time and 18 part-time players.

Vikings entertain York on Saturday (6.30pm) in the quarter finals of the Northern Rail Cup.

Although Widnes are expected to beat the Championship 1 team, they have already come unstuck against teams below them this season - with Oldham winning at the Stobart Stadium in February.

Cullen has demanded his team show the opposition respect and will not be experimenting with his line-up saying it is a ‘time for consistency and the raising of standards’.

“I was disappointed with our ball control at Batley. The moment we make an unforced error there is panic in the ranks.

“The errors at Batley were that bad that people could not quite believe it.

“On Saturday we need to show York more respect than some of the players gave Batley,” he said.

Widnes hope to have Lee Paterson and Stephen Bannister in contention after both failed fitness tests ahead of last weekend’s game.