Warrington Rylands 1 Widnes FC 0, match report

A solitary second-half goal by Kane Drummond separated the teams in a feisty encounter at Gorsey Lane.

Two minutes after the restart, Joe Coveney chipped the ball over a static Widnes backline, Drummond raced onto the ball, rounded the keeper and slipped the ball into the empty net.

Action from Warrington Rylands' 1-0 win over Widnes on Bank Holiday Monday. Pictures by Mark Percy

Action from Warrington Rylands' 1-0 win over Widnes on Bank Holiday Monday. Pictures by Mark Percy

Rylands were quick out of the blocks at the start of the game, with Ste Milne nudging the ball past the keeper in the first minute only for the ball to be cleared off the line.

A few minutes later, Milne had a shot saved by Widnes goalkeeper Owen Wheeler, who in the 15th minute saved at the feet of Drummond as he broke through the defence.

Rylands were disrupted by injuries to Callum Dolan and Charlie Doyle which necessitated first-half substitutions, forcing manager Dave McNabb to reorganise his troops.

As the game became scrappy with too many stoppages, Widnes started to come more into the game without causing too many problems.

Their best chances of the first half fell to Jack Bannister who in the closing minutes saw a shot headed away for a corner by Rick Smith. From the resultant set piece, Bannister fired another shot wide.

After Drummond’s match winning moment, Widnes came close to an equaliser on the hour mark when a corner found Ben Wharton in the middle of Rylands’ penalty area. Unchallenged, he headed over the bar.

Rylands had a strong penalty claim turned down in the 63rd minute – a Luke Wall free kick found Smith in the Widnes penalty area and as the Rylands man was about to volley the ball, he was brought down from behind but the referee ignored Rylands’ appeals.

The visitors were reduced to ten men in the 70th minute when Ben Hampson was sent off for bringing Milne down with a tackle more associated with a Widnes Vikings player as the blue-shirted attacker tried to run onto a Coveney ball played in behind the defence.

From the resultant free kick, Coveney’s shot deflected off the end of the wall, causing Wheeler to scramble along his line to grab hold of the ball.

Despite being a man down, Widnes started to gain the upper hard as they searched for an equaliser but many of their attacks were thwarted by the twin towers of Smith and Joe Denman at the heart of a resolute defence.

The visitors’ best chance of the half fell to Wharton in the 75th minute – a cross landed at his feet six yards from goal with only the goalkeeper to beat, but his first time shot was kept out by Graeme McCall who instinctively thrust out a hand to palm the ball away.

The rebound fell to Wharton but his second attempt was blocked on the line by Smith.

Smith repeated his goal line heroics in the 89th minute, clearing a James Steele shot.

As Widnes pushed forward, they left huge gaps at the back which Rylands were more than happy to break into and could have added to their tally bar for some desperate last-ditch defending.