WIDNES players stood up to be counted with a second-half display of real character, despite falling in this David versus Goliath Lancashire Trophy clash.

Trailing 40-0 against a team which has already sealed promotion to North One for next season, Widnes did themselves every credit to outscore their illustrious visitors after the break.

The pre-match talk had been about the difficulties junior clubs face in the modern era when playing against higher-level opposition.

As if to emphasise the point, LSH had two tries on the board inside the first 10 minutes from centre Nick Marshall and Dan Jones.

They continued to rattle along, averaging more than a point a minute at one stage.

Despite Widnes' best efforts, LSH had added four more tries and five conversions before half-time.

Whatever coach McDermott said to his team during the interval certainly worked and Widnes were revitalised.

No longer star-struck, the Widnes forwards roared upfield from the kickoff through Adam Loughnane, Liam Morton and Paul Borg and applied plenty of pressure in the opposition quarter.

Five minutes into the half, Shingler, Farrow, Barraclough and Farmer recycled the ball quickly for Andy O'Neill and Phil Glover to put Andy Riley under the posts for a try that Lead-better converted.

On 50 minutes, Widnes lost hardworking prop forward Liam Wilde with a rib injury and he was replaced by Simon Duffy.

However, it didn't stop Widnes' momentum and after some bone-crunching defence from Rob Critchley in mid-field, winger Tommy Ledson followed up Riley's clever kick through to pick up and score. Leadbetter again added the conversion.

Despite their big lead and Widnes' best efforts, LSH showed they still had something left and through good work from the forwards and outstanding full-back Tama Makamaka, they added two more tries in the last five minutes.

Widnes 2nd 17 Birkenhead Park 2nd 57: For the second week in a row, Widnes were pitched against an inform side pushing hard for promotion.

But that didn't stop them putting in a mighty effort to fight back after conceding 14 early points.

Gaz Hatton scored after supporting a move through the backs, then centre John Parker intercepted a pass to feed the supporting Martin Hill, who in turn enabled ever-'youthful' Graham Riley to open up Park's defence with a trademark dummy.

But Widnes conceded another try on the stroke of half-time and never recovered.

They did respond, however, early in the second half when Duffy picked up from No8 to feed Mark Loughnane who scored to make it 17-21.

But for some reason Widnes lost their focus and when they tested the referee's patience a bit too often, he dispatched two players to the sin-bin.

After that, the game went away from them and Park turned the screw in the last 20 minutes.