Steve Akrigg felt that his side's desire in the first half was lacking but admitted that he was pleased with the improvement in the second as Widnes came from behind to extend their unbeaten run to 11 games with a 1-1 draw at Hanley Town.

Widnes found themselves 1-0 down at half-time as Neville Thompson fired the hosts in front 12 minutes before the break.

The visitors were much-improved in the second half, with Ben Hodkinson netting less than a minute into the restart to equalise for Widnes, but joint boss Akrigg admitted after the game that he was frustrated with how his side performed in the first 45 minutes.

"The first half was very frustrating," Akrigg said.

"We were poor at that basics and I think that cost us. I think that's why we went in at half-time 1-0 down - the desire wasn't there.

"Having said that, the second half was much better. We started to get the basics right, we were winning first and second balls and we began to cause them problems.

"But you have to produce for 90 minutes to get results, and we didn't do that.

"I know that the pitch wasn't great, but you have to cope with the elements. There were a couple of situations where we didn't make the right decision that could have produced a second goal.

"I'm not sure that we should have had a penalty. A few the lads said that there was a handball late on but that wasn't given.

"1-1 is a decent point in a sense, but we came here for all three points and have only left with one, which is disappointing."

The result brought an end to Widnes' magnificent 10 game winning streak but Akrigg is encouraged the his side have set such a high standard moving forward.

He said: "It's encouraging that we're not losing games but because we've set the standard so high with the wins, it's disappointing when you can only draw.

"That's down to our own high-standards so it's good in a sense that you can see how disappointed the lads are not to have won today.

"You need to have that winning mentality so hopefully we can bounce back next time out."