ECCLES MOVE BACK TO THE TOP

As a consequence, they have been dislodged from the top spot by the Gorton Street outfit, who now move above them in the battle for promotion.

Crucially, perhaps, the Wids still have a game in hand over their nearest rivals, although they can now no longer afford any more slip ups as both teams enter into the crucial stages of the season.

The weather for the game, whilst being overcast and chilly, provided ideal conditions for some free flowing rugby.

And that was how it started for the Wids, who began brightly, recording an early try to give them a five point advantage.

The try came following a clean break from Jack Krause, to set up the chance for Will Patient to finally get on the end of Liam Lawton's deft chip through.

Minutes later, the visitors missed with a fairly routine penalty kick from almost straight in front.

On 15 minutes, it was the Wids turn, and this time Kevin Leadbetter was able to convert the kick to increase their advantage to 8pts - nil.

After that, though, Eccles really began to rally and find some form to take the game back to the Wids.

Wing man Chris Fortune made a decent run down the touchline before he was tackled. But the visitors weren't done yet, and when the ball was switched to the opposite flank, stand-off Simpson was on hand to cross for a well worked try.

Again, the kick was wide of the target, but the deficit was down to just three points.

Now, it started to look like it was Widnes who were making mistakes with a number of self-inflicted errors.

This, mixed in with a regular supply of penalties - to both teams - which added to make it something of a frustrating stop-start affair.

That was until the 33rd minute, when a Widnes pass was intercepted by flying wing Gavin Ackers-Johnson, who snapped up the opportunity to race home from 60 metres for a try which was goaled by Leon Simpson.

That put the visitors in front by 12pts - 8, which was ultimately how the first half ended.

If the Wids were to kick on and win this game, then they really needed to re-discover their mojo after a disappointing first forty minutes.
And they began the half well enough as they caused some early panic in the Eccles defence.

Finally, it did come right for the 'red-and-blacks' as the ball was swung out wide enough to get Liam Lawton crossing for a try in the corner.
The conversion attempt was missed, but the home side were now back in front again, albeit by the narrowest of margins.

Eccles then had a player sent to the sin-bin which should have helped the Wids. But instead, the visitors were able to double down on their efforts and they began to show the kind of form that has seen them rise steadily as promotion hopefuls.

Widnes, though, continued to defend well until late in the piece, before the pressure finally told enabling Ackers-Johnson to pop up and cross for his second try to put the visitors in front once again.

With not too much time left on the clock, the try seemed to finally knock any of the remaining stuffing out of the Widnes chances, so it came as no real surprise when Eccles added a further late converted try to wrap up the scoring.

Head coach Andy McIntosh said "A tough one to take today but that’s rugby - we move on - and what we do next is the test.

It was a tight game for 80 minutes, and we unfortunately fell a bit short in the last five minutes of the game after some great defensive efforts defending our try line. In the end it came down to a few calls at key moments that didn’t go our way, combined with Eccles taking full advantage of any opportunities that came their way.

We are now looking for a big response and get a chance to put it right again next week. There is plenty of rugby left to be played this season”.

Widnes: A Jones, J Krause, J Patient, L Lawton, T Spencer, K Leadbetter, J Salter, D Rourke, A Watson, M Lawton, M Garrity, S Bryan, K Arndell, W Patient, T O’Neill (c). Reps: A Haydock, M Jones, G Hatton.