Widnes manager Dave Dempsey is hoping to replicate performance-levels against higher opposition for their Rylands test.
They’ve had a lay-off competitive due to postponements including their Boxing Day bank holiday clash against City of Liverpool.
With games in hand, there is a growing importance to pick up points as Prescot Cables look to close to the gap at the bottom.
Dempsey’s side have been preparing for FA Vase holders Warrington Rylands who have enjoyed up and down form after 4-2 and 5-3 wins were followed by a disappointing collapse to Leek Town.
But for the Widnes boss, he is hoping to replicate performances against Marine and Workington were they fell to defeat a goal-margin.
He told Off The Park: “We’ve got to use that break and takes positives from it, players back from injuries, lads who’ve played a lot of football they’ve had Christmas with their breaks, we’ve just got to move forward and progress.”
“It’s similar to the [Runcorn] Linnets game, we earmark it as a good test for us, at the end of the day these are the teams we want to be, striving to be competing with.
“You look at the league table and question that comment that we are way off but I don’t believe that we are. I think the players we’ve got in the dressing room and the belief, if we can put a string of results together then there’s no reason why we can’t be going higher up the table.
“But the likes of Rylands, when you play them, Marine, Workington’s those teams fighting for that top spot it’s a game where we’ve got no pressure, no ones expecting anything from our group other than zero points – the players know that. We’ve shown a really good accounts of ourselves against very good sides this season.
“They’ve gone to Leek – who are a very good side – they’ve been decimated with Covid they’ve not gone full strength, I don’t know how they are but I’m not really reading into form at the moment.
“There’s that much going on around football that are affecting teams like us and Rylands, one week you can have 20 players fully fit then you can have eight missing through Covid and one or two injured, then you’ve got 10 players missing at the drop of a hat.
“As a collective, they will be looking to right the wrongs of [the defeat to] Leek, it’s one game for a time for ourselves. We’ve got to go at Rylands and hope that we can do what we do well, if we do then we can cause upsets in this league absolutely no doubt about it.”
[Featured image: Alan Rowlands]
