St Helens Town 0 Newcastle Town 0 TOWN spend Easter at home this weekend with two appetising league fixtures which bring Workington to St Helens on Saturday followed by Skelmersdale Uniteds visit on Easter Monday. Both kick off at 3pm.

Town, lying just outside the top six experienced something of a rarity last week with two draws in three days, having previously only drawn one league match all season.

Salford's mid week visit needed Steve Pennington's fire to lift a listless display as the sides shared four goals and Pellet's brace took his tally to 32 to lead the North Western Trains Division One goalscoring chart by two, from Prescot's Peter Cumiskey.

But there was no net-stretching for Pellet on Saturday when clean-sheet specialists Newcastle Town came to Hoghton Road and it was a tense affair which lacked goalmouth incident but not concentration and determination from both sides.

Town were far happier with a point than long-time leaders Newcastle, who having led the table all season have been recently overhauled by Mossley who were meantime picking up three more vital points at Holker OB.

Town had two good chances in the opening two minutes when firstly Pennington rose well to meet Laird's hoisted cross but keeper Chris Holmes was well placed to clutch beneath the bar before a mix up allowed Dooner's deep free-kick to reach Laird, but the keeper did enough in spreading himself to force the shot wide.

Next it was Town keeper Allison's turn to make an effective block from Twigg as Dooner's back-pass lacked power. But after this early flurry, a stalemate ensued.

It was not until the half's closing stages that either keeper was alerted when first Newcastle's Gillick drilled just wide following a short corner kick before a Pennington volley and Jones header flew wide as Town closed the half with some neat interplay.

Newcastle livewire Twigg was again involved on 51 minutes when his 12-yarder on the turn went just wide. Then as both sides mounted raids keepers Allison (St Helens) and Holmes (Newcastle) showed tidy handling in cutting out the vital ball. Substitute Wade was now making his mark on the visitors' left and again Twigg wasn't too far away with an angled shot but Town were cool and calm in a disciplined manner. Offensively Town were getting little change out of Newcastles cover, superbly marshalled by skipper Andy Holmes but there was no shortage of hard work being done as illustrated by the efforts of Laird and Pennington against the odds.

On 70 minutes it needed a fine tackle by Holmes to deny Town's Bickerstaffe following a sweet passing move but Newcastle hit back dangerously with Twigg blasting into the side netting.

From this point there seemed an inevitability about the outcome but not before both sides had major scares in the last five minutes when firstly Newcastle's Wade hit the bar from an acute angle then Town's Laird was left clear onto Allison's goal kick but couldn't lift his cushioned volley over keeper Holmes who stretched to gather as he raced out.

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