Widnes 3-0 Cheadle Town

At the risk of repeating myself ad nauseum (see other match reports), fine lines n' all that.

Five minutes into the second half, and with the match delicately poised at 1-0 to Widnes, Mike Sherrington robs the Widnes keeper of the ball and rolls a shot towards an empty goal; said ball doesn't do what it is supposed to do and nestle in the net, instead cannoning off the foot of the post where it it then hacked away to safety.

Two minutes later Widnes are awarded a penalty. Kevin Towey launches it high into the roof of the net and the game takes on a completely different outlook.

Ho-hum.

Mike Sherrington was also cursed by the woodwork in the first half after he had found an angle down the right with Thabiso Magida also troubling the upright early doors with a looping volley.

Wrapped around those two efforts were equally good chances for the hosts.

They forced Smith into a good stop as early as the 9th minute and had put a close-range stooping header wide on the quarter-hour before taking the lead on 30 minutes; Lomax finally driving the ball home some moments after an earlier effort had struck the post.

At the 0-2 point we were then presented with another decent chance to reduce arrears.

Liam Tongue rose well to meet a free-kick at the far post with his header rebounding off the underside of the bar; the loose ball was met with an overhead kick but it was straight at the keeper.

Widnes wrapped it up with minutes left when Lomax went on a jinking run on the left before cutting in a couple of times and rifling low to Smith's right.

That was chapter one in a triptych of cup fixtures. Chapter two comes this Wednesday evening when NWCFL Premier Division outfit Runcorn Town come to Park Road for the Cheshire Senior Cup.

TEAM: Smith, Todd, Flannery, German (Shaw), Tongue, Dunn, Hincks, Russell (Wood), Whyatt, M Sherrington, Magida. SUBS: Piggott (gk), Shaw, Wood, McLaughlin.