REPORT BY WINNERS LAD

This was effectively Leek Towns game in hand over the majority of their play-off rivals and the Blues achieved a routine 3-0 victory in front of a decent midweek crowd of 425 to consolidate their second place position and to move within a point of leaders Macclesfield.

With Will Hugill having played a full 90mins for Burnley U21s the previous day, Manager Neil Baker chose to rest the youngster and give a full home debut to Tom Thorley, otherwise the Blues line up was unchanged from the previous game.

After the thrilling late win over Clitheroe on Saturday the game and atmosphere was a little more subdued, not helped by a wet chilly November night, as the Blues put in an under par performance, but which was still enough to overcome a spirited and hardworking Widnes side trying to climb away from the depths of the league table.

Despite the reminder of their slow start to their previous two games, the Blues still began in a rather low-key manner but were able to take the lead inside the first 10mins. A chipped ball forward by Billy Reeves cleared the first Widnes defender and Rob Stevenson, coming in behind him, anticipated the resulting bounce perfectly as he was able to loop a header over keeper Luc Rees and into the net.

A minute later and it was nearly another as Stevenson received the ball following an interchange of passes between Thorley and Tim Grice and fired in an effort that Rees had to push wide.

After this initial set back Widnes seemed to settle and slowly grew into the game with Steven Irwin, in particular, setting the tone for the visitors with his work rate in midfield. However, despite maybe edging the first half territorially Widnes lacked an element of attacking quality and the Leek back line looked comfortable with only half chances falling to the visitors from set pieces

Similarly, after the initial period, Leek were also struggling to fashion any further chances with their only threat coming from Louis Keenan delivered corners or free kicks, the majority of which seemed to come from fouls on Stevenson who the visitors were keen to stop by all means possible. Although the Blues enjoyed long periods of possession very little of it was in any forward danger areas and the ball was not being moved quickly enough to pull the visitors out of their compact shape and create any openings.

LEEK TOWN 1 - WIDNES 0 HT

In keeping with their pattern of recent displays Leek began the second half with renewed purpose and little more urgency ably displayed when Grice charged down a Widnes defender who was taking too long on the ball and was able to block the clearance his clearance with the loose ball falling to Dan Trickett-Smith. He took the ball on into the area and fired the ball low between Rees' legs but the keeper just managed to get something on the ball and it narrowly went wide of the far post for a corner kick.

The ball from the corner was subsequently delivered towards Grice at the near post but found its way through to centre half Josh Ryder and the last minute hero from the Clitheroe game was able to bundle it in for his second goal in consecutive matches to make it 2-0 on 51mins.

In their attempts to get back into the match Widnes made a couple of substitutions but their cause was not helped when, on 65mins, Sean Miller flew into a tackle on Keenan on the touchline and the referee, deeming it to be high and reckless, produced a red card and reduced the visitors to 10men for the remainder of the game.

After that it seemed as if Leek, with a two goal cushion and a man advantage, were content to manage the game without over exerting themselves too much, and they wrapped things up on 77mins when Rob Stevenson lashed a shot past Rees to seal a two goal man of the match performance for the Blues forward.

LEEK TOWN 3 - WIDNES 0 FT

The Blues now look to progress in the Isuzu FA Trophy against Chorley, a free hit with Leek as massive underdogs

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Leek Town line up as follows

1. Roberts

2. Bavanganga

3. Keenan

4. Grocott (c)

5. Harrison

6. Ryder

7. Thorley replaced by Davidson (76)

8. Reeves

9. Grice replaced by Carr (73)

10. Trickett-Smith replaced by Baker (80)

11. Stevenson

Substitutes : Hugill, Wara (unused)

Attendance : 425