Kevin Towey was full of praise for the commitment and endeavour of his players as Widnes cruised to a 2-0 Halton Derby win over Runcorn Town on Friday night.

The returning George Lomax marked his second Widnes debut with a goal, opening the scoring after seven minutes before Towey netted himself five minutes into the second half.

It was a comfortable night for Widnes, who climb above Town to second in the Hallmark Security League Premier Division.

"I'm delighted," Towey said.

"We dominated large parts of the game and based on the amount of chances we had, it could have been a lot more than 2-0 if I'm honest.

"It's a brilliant result if you look at where they are. I know that they've had a couple of bad results as of late but they aren't in the position that they are in by accident. At some stage, their form will improve.

"It was important that we capitalised on their bad run in comparison to our good form and I think that we did that really well."

The return of Lomax signalled a positive start to his second stint at Widnes, with Towey believing that Lomax will prove to be a huge addition to an already strong squad, owing to his relationship with not only Towey, but his brother Chris.

He said: "I spoke to both George and Chris before the game that it was a chance to rekindle what was an important part of last season's promotion push, the relationship between the three of us.

"We're really lucky to have been able to bring George back. On top of that, we've got Brad Smart and Ben Hodkinson in the ranks so it's a really strong squad at the moment.

"Stuart Cook came off the bench for his debut and looked assured. I believe that he is technically the best player in this league.

"We just need to make sure that we ease him into the side. I think that it was important that we didn't panic and force him into the side in an attempt to fix something that wasn't broken."

With Padiham up next at the Select Security Stadium, Towey is eager for his side to focus on themselves moving forward and not pay too much attention to the teams around them.

"When we took over, the target was to finish as high up the table as possible. That's still the target," Towey said.

"The two Runcorn sides have games in-hand, as do many other teams but we just have to keep chipping away and doing what we do.

"I spoke to Padiham's manager before tonight's game. They'll be a different outfit than what we've faced tonight as they'll look to get on the ball and play football.

"I'm expecting a very tough game next week."