Goals from Brad Smart, Kev Pollard and Kev Towey secured the win for Widnes over Irlam, who grabbed a late consolation goal through captain Jordan Icely.

It was a relatively comfortable afternoon for Widnes, and a perfect way to respond to their below-par performances last weekend against Charnock, and in Monday's penalty shootout win over Carlisle City in the Macron Cup.

"Today was a better performance," Akrigg said.

"I thought that we controlled the game. We moved the ball around quickly which is how we scored our opening goal. That's something we've been saying that we needed to do in recent games.

"Performance-wise, I'm happy. I thought that they were a decent side and tried to play passing football but I felt that that suited us.

"A couple of lads have come in and done well. Phil Doran has come in at left-back. After 80 minutes, he was probably a bit tired after 80 minutes and that might be why we conceded the goal but other than that, there isn't really anything I can complain about.

"I think that defenders and keepers are judged on clean sheets but as I say, I'll put that goal down to fatigue but apart from that, they didn't really trouble us."

In addition to the debut of Doran, striker Sam Henry came off the bench late on to make his own debut. Akrigg believes that the duo will produce their best performances once they get up to speed.

He said: "Phil's been with us for three weeks but International Clearance takes a while to come through. It was our first chance to get him on the pitch and I thought that he did really well.

"Sam's only joined us recently and it was an ideal chance to get him out there. He'll be in contention now moving forward."

Widnes are in midweek action next time out as Akrigg and Towey's side travel to AFC Liverpool on Wednesday.

Akrigg is expecting another tough game but is backing his side to do well and get the three points.

He said: "We played them here a few weeks ago and it was 1-0 with a much-changed side.

"It'll be a completely different game at Marine. They have a nice pitch so we should be able to get the ball down and play ourselves. They'll be looking to do the same.

"Hopefully that'll suit us and if we produce what we did today, I think that we can go there and get three points."