Town hustled out

St Helens Town 1 AFTER an opening sequence of 11 unbeaten league games, Town suffered two defeats in a week.

They went down for the first time in midweek at Atherton LR before doing the same in a controversial match at Glossop on Saturday.

Despite the reverse, the Atherton game had far more pluses than minuses. And, with keener finishing, the outcome would have been different.

And once again a penalty failure played its part as the hosts edged a fine contest by three goals to two.

Town's goals came from Gilmore and Hill, while Quirk saw his spot-kick saved by Senior as top marksman Pennington sat out an excellent match through injury.

In contrast, Saturday's defeat at Glossop was one to forget quickly as the hosts hustled and bustled their way to the points against a St Helens side, who, though lacking in ideas, could claim they were hard done to by the officials and frustration boiled over, resulting in Town finishing the game with only nine men.

Surrey Street is a venue where Town seem either to blow hot or cold and on Saturday the latter was the case. But with Pennington back up front they began reasonably well and Hill's fine pass in the seventh minute provided the ace marksman with a great chance, but he lofted the ball over as he burst into the area. A minute later Pennington converted a harder chance but was fractionally offside before Glossop mounted an offensive in which Town lived dangerously as the Hillmen imposed midfield authority.

Despite the pressure Town came through to the interval with a clean sheet, courtesy of some sterling work by Kirwan and Williams, while 'keeper Allison made a couple of fine blocks.

Indeed, Town could have taken an interval lead had Gilmore not fired directly at 'keeper Bell after Donlan had done the spadework.

An incident-packed second half opened with Town's Pennington heading over the 'keeper who was able to race back and drag the ball back off the line. Pennington was involved again minutes later when he just failed to reach Donlan's low cross after Walmsley had cleverly switched play.

Despite this, Town were losing the midfield contest and Glossop's more direct approach and physical presence began to take its toll as sheer hustle and bustle led to St Helens errors and it needed a great save by Allison to deny Morgan in the 54th minute, while O'Connell should really have scored after Lowe's clearance had been charged down. However, the writing was on the wall an on 57 minutes Glossop went ahead when O'Connell cut in from the left and a wicked deflection lifted the ball over Allison's attempted diving block.

Glossop were now firmly in control and Town had a let-off when Smallwood's free-kick curled against the bar. But on the hour St Helens levelled.

The goal came via a right-wing corner perfectly delivered to the near post by Hill and Steve Pennington's glancing header filtered through a sea of limbs to nestle in the far corner.

For a while this halted Glossop's surge and Pennington came close to putting Town ahead. But his deflected free-kick was well saved by Bell in the home goal. Throughout, several contentious decisions resulted in St Helens bookings, but Glossop appeared to be treated rather leniently. This broke Town's concentration and on 62 minutes they fell behind when Glossop won a corner following O'Neil's initial mistake. And with the big guns up from the back, Ringland forced the ball in at the far post.

There then followed a niggly period in which Town created nothing and in the 78th minute it erupted when Williams and Glossop's O'Connell were involved in an off-the-ball incident, which resulted in the Town's dismissal, while a yellow card was all the Glossop man received.

It was all uphill for St Helens now and things got worse five minutes later when Gilmore reacted to a foul and was ordered off for a second bookable offence.

Town bravely attempted damage limitation and could have had an equaliser had O'Neil been able to turn sharper. But sheer numerical advantage took its toll and Pickford was able to add a simple third goal in the dying minutes and Town's day of woe was complete.

This Saturday Town are at Salford City (3pm) before entertaining Burscough on Wednesday, November 26 (7.30).

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