The Moss Farm outfit must have thought they had done enough to win the game after recovering from a 20pts – 7 deficit to take the lead with precious few minutes left.

However, when they conceded a late penalty, up stepped McGovern – the man with ice in his veins – to calmly step up and strike the ball home from distance to earn his side an exciting and important victory.

It was a thrilling end to what had been a tremendous game of rugby and made amends for their disappointing loss against Douglas the previous week.

Despite the filthy conditions, the Wids Under 13’s alongside a healthy crowd, welcomed the two teams onto the field.

Opponents, Northwich were looking to reverse the disappointment of losing their previous two matches and arrived at Heath Road with a huge pack of forwards at their disposal, suggesting this was going to be a really intense and physical contest.

The early exchanges were all a bit frantic and there were plenty of unforced errors in the difficult conditions.

With not too many highlights to pick out, and much of the play centred in the middle area of the pitch, it took until the 25th minute before the deadlock was broken.

A smart touch finder from Mike Jones got Widnes to within five metres, before some quick thinking from Keiron Arndell saw the second-row man crash over for a try.

Five minutes later, Widnes were awarded a penalty, and McGovern successfully converted the kick to increase the home sides advantage.

Widnes were holding the upper hand at this point, and they were able to increase their lead further as Allan Breeden was able to capitalise on a long kick downfield into open space, by scoring their second try which McGovern was able to convert.

Northwich replied almost immediately though, as prop forward Mthembu Tshipane crossed for the visitors, with Alex Speakman converting.
That proved to be the last real action of the half, and the home side went in at the break leading by 15pts – 7.

Despite the worsening conditions, Widnes were off to a great start at the beginning of the second half.

A break down centre field from Keiron Arndell started things off before some intelligent work from Charlie Feeley saw the wing forward release the final pass to full back Ciaron O’Donnell who dived over in the corner.

At 20pts – 7, the Wids should really have kicked on and put this one to bed, but a few wrong options at key moments cost them more points.
Instead, though, it was Northwich who slowly began to re-establish themselves back into this contest.

On the hour mark, hooker Rory Leijdekkers crossed for a try with Speakman again converting to make it 20 – 14.

Widnes then introduced Craig Lawton and Rio Hamlett, as the visitors really began to turn the screw.

Under intense pressure now, the home side were hanging on, but after 74 minutes, their defence was again breached following an intelligent diagonal cross field kick to the corner.

Fullback Speakman then held his nerve to add the conversion to put Northwich into the lead for the first time in the match.

From there, it looked like the visitors were now favourites to kick on and get the job done.

With the clock ticking down, there seemed nothing on as Bobby Finch gained possession well inside his own half.

However, the winger showed pace, strength, and determination as he made a 45-metre dash down the far touchline which ultimately led to a Widnes penalty some forty metres out.

With the clock ticking down, and conditions worsening by the moment, it looked like it was going to be a bridge too far, as McGovern lined up the long-range penalty attempt.

With everyone holding their breath, McGovern calmly stepped up and struck the ball to perfection and straight between the uprights much to the delight of his teammates and the Heath Road faithful.

Even then, there was still time for Northwich to give it one more go, but as they tried to force the pace once too often, they were penalised allowing Widnes to boot the ball out of play and finally claim victory.

It was a great end to a great contest.

In what was a great team effort, Keiron Arndell was selected as the player of the match, but there were other top showings from Sam Bryan, Charlie Feeley and Tom Spencer amongst others.

Head coach Liam McGovern said afterwards “Today was a really physical game against a big multi nationality Northwich team who certainly came to Heath Road to try and dominate us but where unsuccessful in doing so.

I am extremely proud of the way the players applied the game plan especially in shocking weather conditions and played a smart enterprising brand of Rugby.

Obviously, there are areas we need to sharpen up on this week, and we have plenty of improvement still to come from this team, but today was all about the win and that is exactly what we managed to achieve.”

Widnes: C O’Donnell, B Finch, J Patient, K Leadbetter, T Spencer, L McGovern, G Hatton (c), M Garrity, R Mafi, D Rourke, K Arndell, S Bryan, C Feeley, A Breeden, M Jones. Reps: R Hamlett, S Whitty, C Lawton.