Bootle manager Brian Richardson was pleased with his side’s response to their midweek disappointment.
Widnes cruised past the Bucks giving Richardson his first taste of defeat since succeeding Joe Doran in the hotseat.
Once again for Bootle they returned to their rampant ways, netting five a week after they produced a similar scoreline at home to Ramsbottom.
A Connor Millington brace helped the Bucks on their way whilst Northern Premier League West top goalscorer Ben Hodkinson continued his rich vein of form with Tom Peterson and Jack McGowan opening and rounding off the scoring, respectively.
It continued a good spell of form for Richardson, almost a month into his tenure, as they secured their fourth win out of a possible five.
“We knew were poor at Widnes, I think a lot of disappointed lads after that but that’s good. It was quite tight the first half, I think once we scored the lads really got their teeth into it and caused a lot of problems,” he told Off The Park.
“Like I said 0-0 at half time, we were quite satisfied with our first half performance then we just kicked on from there so good result it keeps everybody happy. They haven’t done particularly well keeping clean sheets and that’s three out of four now, hopefully we’re improving in that area.
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“Personnel changed a little bit. I think looking back on the Widnes game, when you’re going into a club you have to look at what you’ve got,” Richardson said describing the difference between his last two.
“I can’t take the view that the previous manager had his starting XI and that’s always got to be the way it is. If you’re going to get lads on board you need to give them some minutes and see how they go, maybe the set up wasn’t particularly good that day [against Widnes].
“But I’d also say if the players were honest with themselves it wasn’t a change of personnel as such it was personal performances, it wasn’t just one or two that were off on the night it was probably eight or nine and you can’t win a game with two men.
“I think everybody might say you made a few changes but in all honesty should it affect an individuals performance just because you’ve got a different man in front of you, the answers probably no. So I think it was one of them blips that everyone gets, I think on the night Widnes we’re far better and we were poor so I don’t think anyone would argue about that that in the dressing room.
“We’ve probably won four out of five since we’ve been in place, I’ll be honest if we could win 80 per cent of our games I’d be more than happy. Teams at this level are coming off the back of the pandemic and there’s not a massive consistency at this level throughout the league.
“It’s happening at this level where people are struggling to get consistency, if we could get three wins out of four or four wins out of five I’d be more than happy, I’d accept one bad game. I think 80 per cent of points is going to get you a lot higher than where we were.”
