Captain Kevin Pollard believes that a strong team spirit has been the backbone of Widnes’ success this season, after the Whites secured promotion to the Evo-Stik League with a 1-0 win at Ashton Athletic.

Widnes finished the Hallmark Security League Premier Division season in second place and will now join Champions and neighbours Runcorn Linnets in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Division One West next season.

The skipper, who missed out on the matchday squad at Ashton, says that the players are relishing next season's challenge and next week's Macron Cup final.

"We've got a great bunch of lads at the club who all back each other up," Pollard said.

"You can see that in the performances we've put in since November. It's an incredible achievement considering where we came from.

"We were mid-table and we never really thought about promotion. We thought that we could crack on and get ourselves as high up the table as possible but we've put a great run of results and come out of it to finish second.

"To get back-to-back promotions and go up at the first attempt is brilliant."

Not risked by joint bosses Steve Akrigg and Kev Towey, Pollard praised the performance of his teammates in Widnes' victory as Jack Banister netted an early winner.

He said: "I think that it was more or less done and we didn't want to particularly risk anything today.

"The lads were incredible again. Defensively superb."

Moving forward, Pollard says that he and his teammates are relishing Widnes' upcoming Macron Cup final against Burscough, and is hoping to end the season on a high.

"We have a deserved break this week but we'll make sure that we're ready for Burscough," Pollard said.

"Everything has to go into the final from our point-of-view. It's a great ground to play at and it's a game that we all want to win."