Urmston 1 St Helens Hockey Club 1 THERE was utter despair for St Helens on Saturday as they missed out on promotion for the second year running.

Their hard-earned drawn at Urmston was not enough as promotion rivals Preston banged in 19 goals at Knutsford to steal second spot. And the Blues have only themselves to blame after a series of draws earlier in the season.

Saturday saw Urmston take the lead after an early short corner. St Helens had a goal ruled out for pushing.

But with 10 minutes of the first half left Paul Horton beat three defenders before smashing home the equaliser.

St Helens man of the match, keeper Mike Hall, made a string of fine saves to keep his side in the game.

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