Morley 23 Liverpool St Helens 28 THIS RFU Senior First Round Cup tie represented the sternest test yet for Eric Hughes young side.

At the final whistle the sizeable travelling support cheered them off the park knowing that this was another significant step along the LSH road to improvement.

With last season's tendency to give up big leads hopefully consigned to history, LSH fought back three times against a previously unbeaten Morley side. Losing 23-32 with just two minutes to go they ran the ball from their own try line through four different phases of play before Neil Hull finished off a magnificent score.

The ball had travelled the length of the pitch and had passed through virtually every LSH pair of hands before the young full-back's glorious touchdown. The referee played six minutes added time and the Yorkshire men threw everything at LSH but with growing maturity the defence, with South African new recruit Choppy Ferreira in outstanding form, stood firm.

Morley had made the better start scoring tries from full-back Scott Evans and winger Chris Johnson with only a single penalty in reply from Simon Worsley who added two more early in the second half to reduce the arrears. LSH had plenty of possession but, at times, struggled to find the fluency to convert this into points on the board. They were made to pay for missed chances when the home side scored two more tries through centres Murray and Sherlock.

The visitors calmly responded by an assault on the Morley line resulting in prop Phil Hewitt charging through the defence to bring LSH within touching distance at 17-16. Two further Morley penalties extended their lead once again demanding yet another LSH reply which came from replacement Mike Hitchen.

In a swift move down the right, winger Danny Jones evaded two tackles before passing to Hitchen to score in the corner. With less than five minutes left this set up the pulsating finale and a winning try to rank with the very best that now earns LSH a home tie in the second round against Hull Ionians on Saturday, September 29.

On Saturday LSH entertain West Hartlepool at Moss Lane in the National League.

LSH 2ndXV 27 Preston Grasshoppers 29 A much improved display from the seconds matching their opponents in every aspect of the game. They ran in five tries through John Reilly, Gareth Brown, Martin Goulding and Chris Evans with two. Unfortunately the visitors dominated the middle period of the second half to give them the advantage.

New recruits Brown and Goulding made an immediate impact whilst Stuart Carter had an outstanding game.