St Helens Town 2 Newcastle Town 1

A GOAL by substitute Gary Laird less than a minute from time gave Town three vital points in this crunch clash at Knowsley Road.

And a similar outcome in the swift return fixture at Newcastle's Lyme Valley Stadium on Saturday would put Jimmy McBride's men in a healthy position in their bid for the North West Counties League championship.

The sudden death in midweek of Ramsbottom United's long-serving manager Ken Bridge cast a shadow over the whole of the NWCL and the Rossendale Valley outfit were excused immediate commitments, leaving Town without a game on Saturday.

That left them with time to reflect on this result which leaves them in a great position with 18 games still to play. The Potteries side, though, will be all out for revenge after this unlucky defeat so Town can expect a backlash.

Attacking the Edington end, Town started fluently with Hennigan and Cooper prominent and a slow build-up of pressure resulted in a 34th minute opener when top scorer Terry Fearns soared high to head home Mark Ashton's corner.

Despite this, Newcastle played some neat and tidy football and should have levelled on 40 minutes but Wilson-Cunningham, having skipped around Town keeper Woods' sprawl, somehow fired wide.

On 51 minutes Newcastle spurned another chance to level when Beesley shot wide after Town had been opened up down their left flank.

Set pieces had been Town's most potent weapon and on the hour Newcastle were reprieved by a controversial decision when Fearns headed home from yet another corner kick only for an off-the-ball incident to rule out the score.

Gradually Town's lack of controlled possession surrendered the initiative and Newcastle finally grabbed the equaliser on 84 minutes when, from a move up the right, Banks crossed hard and low and Steve Ashton turned the ball into his own net.

At this stage Newcastle seemed happy to settle for a point but St Helens, with subs Nestor and Laird becoming prominent, were about to swing the pendulum once more. A couple of half-decent long range shots had gone wide before the game entered deep added time during which, Nestor slipped a neat pass through for Laird to draw keeper Wakefield before slotting inside the post from 14 yards.

Kick-off on Saturday is 3pm (coach leaves 12.15pm) and on Tuesday, March 6 Town travel to Woodley Sports, kick-off 7.45pm.