St Helens Town10 Abbey Hey 2

FOR 53 years and 28 days St Helens Town's all-time record haul of 10 goals in a game stood unparalleled until this drizzly night at Knowsley Road as their embarkment into the New Year became a milestone in local sporting history.

A 10-4 victory at Hoghton Road on December 6, 1947 over Everton A in a Liverpool County Combination game has remained like a beacon until now as the record books were re-wrote.

Obviously, Town have hit ten before. They have also won by an eight-goal margin as illustrated by the 9-1 romp at Lytham in 1959, but a combination of a 10-goal tally and an eight-goal margin makes this the club's record victory.

In immediate post war St Helens, an imminent austere Christmas was in prospect as Town lifted local spirits with the demolition of the Toffees' third string. The entire five-man forward line of Amos Hughes, Bill Pheasant, Frank Northey, Jack Burke and Bronc Gregorey bagging a brace apiece at a time when the object of the game was merely to outscore the opposition and long before systems and formations were introduced.

Last week's 10-goal romp over Abbey Hey saw hat-tricks from Lee Cooper and Terry Fearns, with goals from Morgan, Bell, Cowley and an own goal completing the bonanza.

The Mancunians, ironically, scored first through Pickering on 23 minutes but a low, angled free kick by Morgan levelled on 36 before a twice-taken penalty kick by Fearns put Town ahead on 40 minutes prior to Abbey Hey's Pickford being sent off for kicking the grounded Phoenix.

In the second half the Dunriding Lane end net saw an absolute avalanche with Cooper intercepting a poor back pass to make it three on 50 minutes. Cowley then made it four on the hour and when the visitors went down to nine men two minutes later it was a case of 'help youselves' as goals went in at frequent intervals.

Perhaps the best strike was a horizontal volley from Bell as Hennigan picked him out with a corner kick to the area's edge, but there were two other strikes which the perpetrators will quickly want to forget. They were bizarre, almost comical own goals by Town's Kirwan and Heys' Dodd prior to Lee Cooper netting the historic 10th with two minutes remaining.

On Saturday Town are at home to Maine Road, kick-off 3pm, and on Tuesday, January 16 they travel to take on Southport in the quarter-final of the Liverpool Senior Cup, kick-off 7.30pm.