Daniel Boden’s 58th minute penalty cancelled out Luke Sephton’s early opener meaning that Widnes will replay against their North West Counties Premier Division opponents in midweek.

The spoils were ultimately shared but the Whites manager was heavily critical of the showing against lower-ranked opposition.

“It was absolutely awful,” Dempsey said.

“We started bright, took our chance when it came but you can’t play football matches in fits and starts.

“If we go away from what we’re asking of the players, you’re going to get these kind of results.

“We’re still in the hat but we can’t get worse than that today. It was dreadful, to be fair.

“We just never responded. Winsford did well. They out run us, they out fought us and you can tell that they were on the end of two convincing defeats.

“Their gaffer has certainly had a reaction, but we need to rise to that.

“There wasn’t a lot of quality throughout the game. The pitch is shocking but you need to find different ways to win games and the work rate wasn’t there today.”

Dempsey switched to a 3-5-2 formation when Widnes were leading 1-0 early in the second half, but Winsford soon equalised through Boden’s spot-kick.

The boss explained that the Whites were looking to exploit Winsford in wide areas, but it simply wasn’t to be.

“For the penalty, Jack Hatton, a right back, has been caught in a right back position,” Dempsey said.

“The lad took it well but the change of shape was trying to go a little bit more central and exploit wide areas but even then, there was no response.

“It was flat. The lads didn’t want to run today and they’ve let themselves down.”

Widnes were perhaps lucky to escape with a replay and they had goalkeeper Owen Wheeler to thank after he pulled off a miraculous save to deny Sam Madeley in stoppage time.

Dempsey admitted that his side rode their luck and conceded that Widnes should not be in the hat for the next round.

“I don’t know Owen pulled that off. It was a world class save,” Dempsey said.

“The reaction after that by the way, with Burkey put his body on the line, is the type of defensive reaction we want to see.

“It’s the top end of the pitch we’re a little bit concerned about at the moment but Jesse [Dowling] had one ruled out for offside.

“We could have been 2-1 up at that point but I’m not going to say we were unlucky or anything like that.

“If anything, we don’t deserve to still be in the hat, but luckily for us, we get a second bite of the cherry on Tuesday.”