Widnes see red in Kidsgrove defeat

KYLE Harrison was sent off late on as Widnes fell to a narrow defeat at Kidsgrove Athletic on Tuesday night.

Widnes, who lost defender Matty

Makinson to a nasty head wound early on, fell behind after 26 minutes when Lewis Bergin headed home from a dubiously awarded free-kick.

The Whites rallied and largely dominated the second half but couldn’t find a breakthrough, and Harrison was perhaps unfairly dismissed eight minutes from time to compound the visitors’ misery.

Co-bosses Steve

Akrigg and Kev Towey made four changes to the side that beat Market Drayton Town last time out. Harrison, carrying a knock, dropped to the bench with River Humphreys tasked with an unfamiliar role at left-back.

Elsewhere, Jordan Barrow was ruled out through illness while Liam Kennington (suspended) and James Steele (unavailable) also made way with Sam Adetiloye, Fisnik Hajdari and Ryan Gibson earning recalls.

There was little between the two sides in the early exchanges. Widnes had somewhat half-hearted appeals for a penalty ignored while Kidsgrove left-back

Ricky Bridge fired a tame effort into the gloves of Owen Wheeler.

Moments later, Makinson was penalised for a foul but was caught on the head by the stray boot of his opponent. Despite the best efforts of physio Ron Cook, the defender was withdrawn and taken to hospital as a precaution.

The game’s first real talking point came when substitute Harrison appeared to fairly win a header ahead of Kyle Diskin, but was penalised for a push by referee Barry Lamb.

Widnes were incensed and perhaps caught cold as Bridge’s set-piece was met by Bergin to head the hosts in front. From there onwards, the visitors were the better side.

Kidsgrove had goalkeeper Kieran Harrison to thank for preserving their advantage as he pulled off a terrific double save to first deny Ben

Wharton before acrobatically pushing Gibson’s follow-up header away to safety.

Widnes carried their momentum into the second half. Harrison again produced an excellent save, this time getting down extremely well to his right to tip Jack Banister’s seemingly goalbound effort past the post.

Gibson then rounded off a fine Widnes move with a smart finish from just inside the area, but his joy was short-lived as he was flagged offside.

Any chances of rescuing a point took a blow when Harrison was controversially shown his marching orders eight minutes from time. The full-back was fouled on the far side right in front of the linesman who flagged for a Widnes free-kick, but referee Lamb overruled his assistant and brandished the red card.

Tyler Magee was introduced for his senior debut from the bench for the closing stages, becoming Widnes’ youngest-ever played at the age of 17 years and 361 days.

Tempers threatened to boil over late on, and the closest the visitors came to an equaliser was a tame Adetiloye effort as Widnes were condemned to a second straight away league defeat.