Football: Widnes manager rues 'slow' first half
Widnes boss Dave Dempsey has had his say after his team was narrowly beaten at Bootle.
Widnes manager, Dave Dempsey
Written by Callum Chadwick
Dave Dempsey was left to rue Widnes' first half performance in their narrow 1-0 loss at Bootle.
Connor Millington's 13th minute strike was enough to condemn the Whites, without a recognised centre forward, to a second straight away defeat.
Widnes never really got going in the first half and despite a spirited performance after the break, their slow start ultimately proved decisive.
"It was a slow first 45 minutes to be honest," Dempsey said.
"We carried too many players in that first half. There was a lack of endeavour, work rate and all the things we like to pride ourselves on in terms of grit and being hard to play against. We were better in the second half. We had some good chances but it simply wasn't to be.
"Macca [Alex McMilan] has had family issues and Lloyd [Dean] was at a wedding so we had to play Sammy [Adetiloye] as a makeshift striker, I suppose. We were missing two key players and it's taken a toll to be honest. I think we just ran out of ideas in the final third.
"The game was a bit more finely balanced in the second half. It was pretty end-to-end and I think they'll say they had some decent chances too. We just didn't have enough quality today. It's frustrating but that's football. There's going to be a lot of results, certainly this time of the season, that carry some what if's but we'll just have to dust ourselves down."
Dempsey did hail the contributions of Rodrigo Schmitdinger, Luke Wall and debutant Jason Akiotu, who all came off the bench in the second half.
The boss welcomes competition for places and says that the trio have given him a "good" headache.
"To be fair to the lads that came on, I think they've all done really well," Dempsey added. They've given me a headache to be honest because they've come on and performed better than some of the showings in the first half.
"We've got a strong group with good characters. We've bounced back before and we'll bounce back again."
Get all the latest news, updates, things to do and more from Widnes, Cheshire's dedicated InYourArea feed.
