By Brendan Doyle
With just three minutes into the game Sean Williams failed to control a ball dropping down to his possession but former Buck Jack McGowan pounced on the error and put his shot past Tony Thompson giving Widnes the early lead. Over ten minutes later the hosts almost doubled their lead after Sam Bird’s long throw bounced into the Bootle six yard area and found the head of James Steele but the effort went just slightly over the bar.
As the first half went on Bootle seemed to grow into the game more as young debutant Nathan Sandison put a low ball in from the right hand side to Conor Harwood but the latter couldn’t get a clean enough shot away. Sandison once again played Harwood through but on the opposite flank and the latter carried the ball into the Widnes area and was brought down which then lead to the The Bucks being awarded a penalty which Ben Hodkinson converted making the score line 1-1 at the half time whistle.
In the opening minutes of the second half a chance fell to Bootle as Ben Hodkinson struck the ball on a half volley with some decent amount of power behind it but unfortunately the shot only flew a few yards wide of the post, but things took a bad turn for Bootle only a minute later as Jack Lenehan received a second yellow card and was forced to depart the pitch as a result leaving Bootle down to ten men. Soon afterwards Widnes were taking advantage of having an extra player on the pitch and as Harry McGee had possession of the ball he went down in the Bootle area with huge penalty appeals from the Widnes players and bench at the referee but nothing was given.
Hodkinson played a fantastic long ball to Harwood which reached Harwood just outside of the Widnes area and he managed to get his shot away but it was safely caught by Mark Halstead. Minutes later another former Buck Craig Carney hit a well struck shot outside of the Bootle area forcing Tony Thompson to make a stretched save. As the second half got to it’s later stages the game seemed close despite Bootle having a man down, up until Niall Battersby headed in a corner from around the near post winning the game for Widnes as they continue their title challenge.
Widnes 2-1 Bootle FC