REACTION | Mixed emotions for Akrigg following win at Burscough

Joint manager Steve Akrigg was left with mixed emotions following Widnes' narrow 1-0 win at Burscough on Saturday.

Brad Smart's strike late in the first half was enough for Widnes to pick up all three points, recording a 10th straight win in all competitions.

Afterwards, Akrigg praised his side's grit but admitted that the performance was far from Widnes' best.

"It certainly wasn't the best performance," said Akrigg. Maybe we had a bit of a hangover from the Christmas period as we've not played for a couple of weeks.

"We looked rusty and I don't think that we dealt with the conditions particularly well. The pitch wasn't the best.

"Credit to Burscough, they gave us a game but I don't think that Richie (Mottram) was troubled too often.

"But to come away with a 1-0 win and a clean sheet, which I've been banging on about, is obviously a positive.

"There's been a couple of games where we've not been at our best but we've still found a way to win, as we did today.

"We've not had many shots and I think that we scored with our only shot on target.

"They've not really tested us but I'm delighted to come away with the three points and the clean sheet, but the performance wasn't great."

Widnes produced one real bit of quality that led to Smart's goal, which encouraged Akrigg.

He said: "We were getting into those positions but we weren't creating anything too threatening.

"We didn't really get shots off for whatever reason, which we spoke about before the game. I don't think that we really tested their goalkeeper too much.

"The one time we did, I actually moaned at Kev (Towey) for not shooting earlier but he released Brad who applied the finish."

Widnes have now won 10 consecutive games in all competitions, keeping pace with the top two sides of Runcorn Linnets and Runcorn Town, while opening up a gap between themselves and fourth placed Charnock Richard despite having played a number of games more.

Akrigg is eager for his side to focus on themselves moving forward.

He said: "We've got to focus on us. Everything else will take care of itself.

"Teams in and around us have to play each other. Someone will always slip up, so we've got to ensure that we don't slip us ourselves and capitalise on others.

"10 games ago, we weren't really considered to be in with a shout of pushing on towards the top of the table so we've got to carry on that momentum and keep racking up those points."