The defeat means that it is Sandbach who progress into the next stage of the competition this coming Saturday – and now face a trip to second placed Vale of Lune who edged out Douglas (IOM) at Powder House Lane.

For the two winners, it means they get to fight another day, whilst for the losing sides, they will now both remain in Regional 2 North West, and ready to lock horns once again next season.

Either way, the ‘red-and-blacks’ can take a little time at least to reflect on what has been a terrific season overall, before turning their attention back to the job in hand, which is their forthcoming Lancashire Cup Final clash against Vale of Lune.

But back to this one, and the weather for the game at Bradwall Lane was bright and sunny, with a strong chilly breeze blowing straight down the pitch which was in great condition and ideal for some free-flowing rugby.

The Wids started the game as though they really meant business and had the better of the early exchanges.

Playing a quick and expansive game, Sam Bryan caught the eye with an early run, whilst there was a smart overhead touch finder from Josh Kenyon.

That created some pressure in the Sandbach ranks which eventually told as a step and half break from Charlie Feeley ended with his pass finding Reuben Mafi in support that saw the hooker score go over wide out for the opening try.

With the 'Bach not yet firing on all cylinders, Feeley then made another break, but this time the opportunity to add more points was missed.

After 20 minutes, the home side got themselves back into the game as prop forward Joseph Ball crashed over for a try which was converted by Matt Randle.

Penalties then began to hurt Widnes, which allowed the home side to piggyback their way up field, which ended with a further three points from a penalty by Randle to make it 10 - 5.

The visitors were then denied a scoring opportunity because of a forward pass before Sandbach were able to add a second converted try to increase the home side’s advantage to 17pts - 5.

After defending for long spells, Widnes finally earned themselves a much-needed penalty and get their hands on some possession after being denied for a long spell.

Choosing the route one option and using their pack to good effect and going through the phases almost paid off, before a powerful burst from Tom O'Neill saw the captain held up over the line.

From there, the home side were able to clear the danger and set up an opportunity for Randle to convert a further penalty on the stroke of half time.

Trailing by fifteen points, the 'red-and-blacks' needed a positive start to the second half, and things began well enough.

After Sandbach had made a mess of the restart, a smart touch finder from McGovern - who used the wind to good effect - then set up the opportunity for the stand-off to then chip ahead allowing Liam Lawton to collect and touch down for a converted score.

With just an eight-point deficit between the teams now, it really was game on again.

Gavin Hatton then made a strong run which could have produced more, but a tendency to overplay the situation, mixed in with a couple of wrong options, saw them miss opportunities, concede more penalties and field position.

This contributed to Sandbach scoring another try on 54 minutes as fullback Leese ran strongly to score the home sides third try to give them some breathing space on the scoreboard at 27 - 12.

The Wids were not done yet though, and on the hour mark, a strong run from Alex Jones set up the play for Charlie Feeley to stroll through a huge gap in the Sandbach defence to score a try.

Liam McGovern then added the conversion to make it 27 - 19.

Realising they were still in a real arm wrestle, and with plenty of time still left on the clock, Sandbach were forced to show their promotion credentials and respond with a long spell of controlled possession which helped choke off much of the visitors fight back opportunities.

Despite this, the visitors never threw in the towel and the last five or six minutes were spent deep in the Sandbach quarter. But in the end, they were not able to grab the necessary points on the scoreboard which would have eased them back into the contest and over the finishing line.

Head coach Liam McGovern said afterwards “Today was a missed opportunity in many ways, but just shows the progress we have made as a club.

We let Sandbach off the hook too many times, and in hindsight if we were a little more patient with ball in hand, we would undoubtedly have scored more points.

Good teams learn by their mistakes and bad teams don’t, so we will review the video and see where we went wrong and fix them up ready for the Cup Final.

I’m very proud of our lads and the performance we put in today. The whole club is going forward and Widnes RU is a fantastic place to be at the moment and going forward it will only get better.”

WIDNES: A Jones, G Hatton, L Lawton, K Leadbetter, L George, L McGovern, J Kenyon, D Rourke, R Mafi, J Winstanley, M Garrity, S Bryan, T Spencer, C Feeley, T O’Neill (c). Reps: C Lawton, E Price, A Watson.