Steve Akrigg was delighted with his side's performance as Widnes bounced back from last weekend's disappointment with a deserved 3-2 win over Bootle at the Select Security Stadium.

Goals from joint manager Kev Towey, Jack Banister and Billy Webb secured three valuable points despite Bootle duo Daniel O'Connor and Kieran Halligan halving Widnes' advantage on two separate occasions late on.

Widnes have now risen to 7th in the Hallmark Security League Premier Division following an initially difficult start to life in the top-tier of North West Counties Football following last season's title-winning campaign in the First Division.

"I thought that the lads stuck to our gameplan extremely well so I'm obviously delighted with the three points," Akrigg said.

"We switched off a bit in the last few minutes, allowing them to get a couple of goals back but we fully deserved the three points.

"The gameplan today was to isolate them centrally and not allow them to play which is exactly what we did.

"I can't remember them playing through us at any point today so we executed it really well and I'm delighted for the lads, especially after the tough week last week.

"To get three points is massive and we'll move on to Friday now and hopefully get a good run going."

Despite conceding twice late on, Widnes' win was a comfortable one that could have produced a larger margin of victory.

Akrigg praised his side's defensive performance, particularly against the league's third-best attack.

He said: "They never really caused us a problem defensively because of how well-organised we were.

"I know they had a penalty which Richie (Mottram) saved but aside from that, they didn't really create anything until the last couple of minutes.

"Maybe that's down to being tired which caused us to switch off and allow them to get back into the game.

"From our point-of-view, there's something to build-on in terms of conceding those goals but the actual performance was really, really good in general."

Widnes now face a run of four games in 10 days, starting with a home game against Squires Gate on Friday night.

Akrigg is expecting a difficult contest against a Gate side rejuvenated under new manager Andy Clarkson, who is yet to taste defeat in charge of the Blackpool-based side.

He said: "It's one game at a time moving forward. I know it's a cliche but it's important that we build on this and go into Friday's game and target another three points.

"With the new manager, they've obviously brought a number of players in and changed the emphasis on their own gameplan which is what new managers at this level tend to do.

"We'll look at them, see what they've brought in and devise our own gameplan to focus on getting a positive result on Friday."