Tow Law 2 St Helens Town 0

(FA Cup prelim)

Flixton 4 St Helens Town 4

(NWCL One) WITH little more than a week of the new season gone, Town have put their followers through the whole range of emotions.

And although seven out of a possible nine league points is a healthy return, there will be no glory run in this years AXA FA Cup.

A busy weekend saw Jimmy McBride's charges in action twice in 48 hours and they made the long trip to County Durham on Saturday to face Tow Law in the AXA FA Cup extra prelim round, buoyed up by a good mid-week result when Skelmersdale United were beaten in Town's Knowsley Road debut by 2-1.

But Town gave a low key display, when suffering their first and only defeat of the season on the county's highest ground and a fog bound occasion proved instantly forgettable.

Out-scrapped in the vital areas, Town rode an early storm with keeper Wood doing well in the murk as Cullen and Bolton were denied and although they stemmed the tide, distance efforts from Dunn and Fearns were routine work for home keeper Poskett. Town resumed in positive fashion and spurned a great chance on 48 minutes when Fearns got clear on goal but made the wrong choice when attempting to angle past the keeper when a pull back to Laird was the better option. This miss proved vital as a minute later the Lawyers went ahead when a skidding ball reared up past Johnson enabling Maughan to go clear and slot home.

The descending hill fog had an eerie presence as the lights came on to pierce the gloom but that gloom remained in the St Helens camp when another breakaway with Cullen looking well offside, went unchecked enabling Bolton to follow up and seal the tie with a simple tap-in.

On Monday at Flixton, Town made up by hitting the heights then continuing to give a three-goal lead away as the hosts incredibly emerged with a point after seemingly being on the end of a rout.

Town's Mark Ashton and goalkeeper Phil Wood will remember the occasion for a long time as both reached the heights and depths of their disciplines. Despite falling behind to Bierne's 13th minute header Town hit overdrive and struck four goals in 13 minutes as Nestor replied immediately before great strikes by Ashton and Hinnigan made it three and when Dearns made it four by the 27th minute, home heads were well down. On 34 minutes Town keeper Wood made a superb save to keep out Bierne's penalty kick and that should have demoralised Flixton but Ashton's retaliation after being fouled gave them a glimmer of hope as Town were reduced to 10 men with almost an hour still to play.

It should not have been a problem and certainly wouldn't had Laird's 49th minute lob not bounced off the bar with Fearns heading the rebound over but Flixton began to emerge from their trauma as Garvey's miscue bobbled over the embarrassed Wood to reduce the deficit to two in the 51st minute.

Forced to defend, Town needed to make the most of any scraps which came their way up front but Fearns in particular lacked vision and the price of not killing off the prey became acute in the 70th minute when Fahey went clear through a yawning gap to make it 3-4. Flixton were now sensing at least a point and if a couple of the goals Town had conceded could be deemed dubious, there was nothing they could do about Garvey's 80th minute equaliser which was an exquisite strike from 20 yards following a nutmeg.

Town almost had the final word of a bizarre match when only a desperate lunge by Dale prevented Fearns from converting Laird's nod down but in the end a point was a hollow prize from such a commanding position.