Widnes ended Workington’s 13 match unbeaten run and cost them the leadership of NPL West in front of their biggest League crowd for a number of years.
The hosts, watched by 1,117 fans, were reduced to 10 men on 25 minutes when Dan Wordsworth was shown a straight red.
It proved a double blow for John McGrath curled the resultant free kick from two yards outside the box, over the wall and into the top corner.
It was one of the few moments of quality in a disappointing first-half when Widnes looked no more than workmanlike and Reds just could not find any rhythm or build any momentum.
Widnes had to make a late change in goal during the warm-up and stand-in Cameron Terry was never tested during that poor first-half performance from the home side.
His one moment of alarm came when Reuben Jerome tried to get on the end of a fine cross from Kyle Harrison and as he stretched could only just deflect it into the waiting arms of Terry.
Reds did shape a bit better in the second-half and Terry at last had to make one fine save to turn away a fierce drive from Dav Symington but some committed defending by the visitors gave him strong protection.
Connor Gaul was moving onto a nice inside ball from skipper Brad Carroll and blasted it goalwards but skipper Mike Burke produced a superb block.
There was also one very good shout for a penalty when Gaul went down in the box but the referee appeared to be the only one who saw nothing wrong and waved play on.
They might have even suffered further because keeper Jim Atkinson had to make a fine one handed save to keep out a header by Lloyd Dean which sparked a series of corners. Atkinson, under pressure, twice did really well to punch clear from underneath his bar.
Manager Chris Willcock was understandably disappointed at the result, and the performance – particularly in the first half.
“I don’t like making excuses but that was only the second time we’ve played in three weeks as we’ve only had two games this month. It doesn’t help and we now face another ten-day break before we go to Bootle on March 8.
“The lads are smarting over this defeat because they have worked very hard to get us into the position we were in. We will train Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and look to put it right at Bootle. I know they will be keen to do that,” he said.
