Steve Akrigg expressed his delight after his much-changed Widnes side narrowly beat AFC Liverpool 1-0 to progress to the last eight of the Liverpool Senior Cup.

Tom Mitchell's opening goal inside of the opening minutes was enough to secure Widnes' safe passage through and a second successive victory for Akrigg and joint boss Kev Towey in as many days.

Akrigg and Towey made nine changes from Saturday's comprehensive win over Maine Road, with the Widnes joint manager praising his players for producing a good performance to progress.

"I'm obviously delighted that we've got through," Akrigg said.

"I'm delighted for the lads that have come in because we've made nine changes to the starting line-up from Saturday, created chances and kept a clean sheet which is nice as a defender myself.

"I think you can see that we're very good going forward. We open teams up and score plenty of goals which has been proven in recent games.

"We've been guilty of making simple mistakes that have cost us games but tonight we didn't make any. I thought that Tom Mitchell marshalled the make-shift backline very well.

"Our goal was down to the delivery which has been good and has led to a few goals in the last one or two games. The ability of Dylan Sweeney on one side and Danny Laverty on the other gave us a bit of a one-two punch that worked well for us."

Amongst the nine changes was a debut for Harris Saunders and a first start for Joe Fielding in his second spell at the club. Akrigg was pleased the contribution of players given an opportunity to get game time in the victory.

He said: "Obviously you can still look at certain players and pinpoint where they need to improve. A few of them haven't been helped by a lack of minutes which is a big thing for us.

"Tonight was an opportunity for us to rotate, especially after playing on Saturday and with tough games to come.

"To come away from tonight with a 1-0 win, you've got to be happy with that."

Next up for Widnes is a trip to Padiham on Saturday, with Akrigg expecting a tough task ahead for his players.

"I expect Saturday to be a tough, physical game," Akrigg said.

"I know that they've brought a number of Evo-Stik calibre players from the local area so we're expecting a very competitive game.

"But if we're on the money, I can't see why we can't go there and win."