after a poor performance last weekend against Atherton Collieries. That didn’t happen as the away side were thrashed by an impressive Holker side. Poor defending proved to be Widnes’ downfall as goals from Martin Grundy, Jamie Pattinson, Guy Heffernan, Nathan Reid and Jordan Brough got Holker’s season going after a difficult start.
The home side started brightly and it didn’t take long to break the Widnes defence, Grundy calmly slotted the ball past Cork to get the home side of to a flyer. Soon after Swarbrick had a volley just wide of the Widnes goal. Holker were lively going forward, Swarbrick flicked the ball on for Reid who fired the ball into the back of the Widnes net to increase the home sides lead. Widnes had their first chance when Ludgate fired an ambitious shot well over the bar. The away side didn’t offer a lot going forward in the first half an hour of the game.
Ben Tollitt hit an enticing ball across the box but it was cleared for a corner before Alex Davies could get to it, soon after Bradley Williams had a measured long range effort saved comfortably by Bell. Ronnie McCarthy had a curling free kick superbly saved by Bell in what was a show of resilience from the away side. A crazy two minutes before half time seen the home side put this game to bed as Jamie Pattinson and Guy Heffernan added Holker’s third and fourth goals. Pattinson calmly slotted past Cork before Heffernan had an easy tap in from a corner after Cork came flying out of the his goal only to get nowhere near the ball.
The second half was much the same as the first, a confident, free flowing Holker side dictated the game. Swarbrick had a drilled shot tipped behind by Cork before Hubbold blazed a good chance wide. Molloy wasted a chance as he headed over the bar from a Tollitt cross. But Brough added a fifth after been put through on goal to comfortably slot the ball home. Widnes had one last chance to get a consolation goal but Douglas headed an easy chance straight at the keeper. It was an impressive display from Holker compounded by a dismal display at the back by Widnes. Manager Steve Hill was furious with his team’s performance, he said “We were beat by a better team on the day. We were making silly mistakes and good teams will punish you and we got punished today. We have got to be mean at one end and that’s our defensive end and we have to be clinical at the other end and we are not at the moment. We are just like a tiger that has its teeth pulled. We need someone who basically wants to stick the ball in the net.”