Joint boss Steve Akrigg spoke of his delight following Widnes FC's win over Runcorn Town on Wednesday night, handing their local rivals their first league defeat of the season in the process.

Goals from Billy Webb and joint manager Kev Towey either side of a Sebastian Julien equaliser handed Widnes a historic victory in the first-ever competitive Halton Derby.

"I'm absolutely delighted and made up for the lads," Akrigg said.

"It's a great result against the unbeaten league leaders, and to be honest, it could have been more.

"If we'd have gone in at half-time 3-0 up, I don't think that they or anyone else could have complained. The best team won on the night.

"I spoke following Friday's loss about how we didn't stick to our gameplan and we got punished. Tonight was exactly the opposite.

"We got the ball down on a heavy surface, played football and stuck to our plan. Looking at the two sides, only one wanted to play football and that was us.

"To come away from here with a 2-1 win is a superb effort from the lads and hopefully, we can push on and build on this."

Akrigg lauded his players for their individual performances, crediting the contribution of player/joint boss Towey in aiding his team's organisation with a number of forced changes, with debutant Michael Grogan and Joe Fielding coming into the side.

He said: "I don't think that you could rate any of our players below an eight out of 10 tonight, they were that good.

"From start to finish, they were top-drawer. A little criticism is the goal that we conceded, we switched off but apart from that, I can't fault the performance.

"Kev can relay messages from the sideline that we can't always get across. It helps us organisationally.

"Mike Grogan's come into the side today and I felt that the organisation defensively was a lot better. Joe has come in and produced a brilliant performance at left-back.

"Billy Webb has been knocking on the door for weeks, he's come in, got his goal and ultimately produced the goods."

Widnes now face three games in 10 days, beginning with a home game against Charnock Richard, the side that Widnes pipped to the First Division title last season.

Akrigg is expecting a physical contest against Charnock but is backing his players to do well.

"Charnock play a certain way. They like to use the aerial prowess of Carl Grimshaw up front. It's up to us to cope with that threat," Akrigg said.

"I think that we've proved that we can compete with the best teams in this league with wins over Bootle and Runcorn Town tonight.

"It's important that come Saturday, we play our way again and hopefully come away with all three points."