First half goals from Michael Grogan and Jack Banister secured a comfortable three points for Widnes, and Akrigg believes that the result was important in ensuring that the 6-1 defeat at Barnoldswick Town is now firmly in the rear view.

"I'm happy to get the result and another three points on the board," Akrigg said.

"It's a good response on the back of what happened last weekend. To win 2-0 at home and keep a clean sheet is always a positive.

"The priority was getting three points. The game lacked any real quality to be honest given the goals that we scored.

"We had a couple of chances in the second half but again, that was probably the only bit of quality in that half. Richie (Mottram) made a good save early but I think it was a lot of a huffing and puffing from both sides."

Akrigg admitted that there had been a discussion within the group about responding positively from the setback at Barnoldswick and focus on picking up as many points as possible from Widnes' final seven league games.

He said, "We spoke in the build-up about we've seemingly responded well to every setback we've had this season.

"It was important that we did that again and it's pleasing that we did exactly that today.

"There's seven games left to play now and three points at the end of each of them is the most important thing."

Akrigg also provided injury updates on Sean Myler and Tom Croughan, with the latter suffering a concerning head injury late on in the contest.

"Tom was knocked out cold to be honest. The best thing for him to do is go and get himself checked out and monitored," Akrigg said.

"It was a nasty collision and he was out for a while. He's come round and seems fine but the best thing for him to do is to get himself checked out.

"Sean thinks he has a knee problem and that's another one that we'll monitor over the coming days. He'll miss out on Tuesday so it's a good job that we have a relatively fit squad.

"We still have myself, Jack (Graham) and Elliott (Jones) to come back into the fold. We've got a big squad that's more than ready for Tuesday night."

Widnes now travel to AFC Darwen tonight, with Akrigg downplaying the significance of Darwen playing on consecutive days, having lost to 1874 Northwich on Monday night.

He said, "You'd like to think that it will give us a bit of an advantage but we're only focusing on ourselves to be honest.

"Obviously, we can only beat what is in front of us and that's exactly what we intend to do at Darwen.

"It'll be tough - it's a tough place to go. It's important that we maintain our performance levels to give ourselves the best possible chance of promotion and to keep the pressure on at the top."