Widnes manager Michael Ellison says it ‘feels good’ to pick up his first win as Whites manager as they beat Hanley Town.
Luke Sephton’s double was the difference as they picked up their win first of the season in Staffordshire.
The triumph came in Ellison’s third league game since taking charge after the club parted ways with Dave Dempsey
They still sit four points adrift at the bottom of the Northern Premier League West table as they face Witton Albion on Saturday, a team who sit two places ahead of Widnes by three points.
“It feels good, I think it had to come sooner or later,” Ellison said speaking to Off The Park reflecting on the win.
“It’s a tough place to go, they are a good side, a lot of experience so it feels good to get off the mark. I think relief more than anything, the longer you don’t get your win, the longer the monkey’s on your back then the pressure builds.
“I thought it was a good win, I thought we deserved to win for the performance we put in, hopefully it’s something we can build on.”
During his short tenure at Widnes, he has been on the receiving end of three defeats in four matches as Macclesfield, Newcastle Town and Mossley have all ran out winners at their expense.
Newcastle Town left a bitter taste in Ellison’s mouth after a red card whilst they were in the lead turned the game on its head.
But Ellison spoke of his delight for the players and management staff after picking up the first three points of the season.
He added: “We had a friendly on the Monday then we trained for two hours on the Thursday, full pitch, we got some information over to the lads, we had a gameplan.
“It’s easy having a game plan the hard bits crossing the white line and executing it so I think all the credit deserves to go to them.
“Made up for the lads, the staff, we worked really hard since we come in but it’s important we don’t get carried away, there’s still lots of things we need to improve on.
“There’s a system, a shape that we’re not going to do every week so we’ve got to implement other stuff this week and we might set up a little against Witton this weekend.”
Witton visit the DCBL Stadium this weekend which marks Ellison’s first game at home since taking over.
Despite the season still being in its infancy, the game does hold some significance with three points separating the pair. The match will also mark the return of Jordan Barrow and Jesse Dowling after the duo left Widnes in recent weeks.
On the prospect of his first time in the home dugout, he continued: “It’s nice to be at home. If you think on the road we’ve been to Newcastle Town, Mossley and then Hanley – really tough places to go.
“It’d be nice to be at home, see the home fans, we’re really, really looking forward to it, I think the lads are too, that’s something we’ve earmarked – our home form – has to be good, a tough place for people to come and make it as difficult as we can for Witton.”
But Ellison insists he is taking no notice of the league table at this stage, highlighting their need to pick up points. He said: “It’s a cliche but we’re not looking any further than Witton, we know Witton are in and around it but I haven’t even looked at the table, all we have to do is concentrate on the game, concentrate our efforts on that game and try to win it.
“That’s the same for whoever we play, we know we’re at the wrong end of the table, we know we’ve got to get wins on the board but I don’t think we’re at the stage where there’s any must win games but we must win games.
“Sooner we start doing that, start getting points on the board, we can get a run together or some consistency. Once we get some consistency in team selection or the lads coming in think we’ll get some consistency on the pitch.”
