St Helens Town 1 Colne 3 (From St Helens Star)

St Helens Town 1 Colne 3

8:23pm Sunday 6th January 2013 in Sport

St Helens Town’s first game in over a month and their first home game since the end of October saw them lose1-3 to their visitors Colne who were simply more clinical in front of goal.

Colne started off the contest brightly with Morrison having a free header from a corner well held by home ‘keeper Lee Novak. The visitor’s Hart did well on the right and he cut into the box before firing narrowly wide of the right hand upright. On 17 mins Colne took the lead; Saunders tried his luck from distance and his effort was parried by Novak but the rebound struck a Town defender before crossing the line.

Town responded well and created a number of chances to level matters. Scott McNair did well to win the ball centrally and thread a pass into the path of Edwards but the ball took a bobble and the striker fired his effort over the bar. With the half drawing to a close Shaun Judge thundered a powerful free kick towards goal which ‘keeper Thompson did well to parry; the loose ball broke towards Phil Williams but the stopper reacted quickly to punch the ball towards the edge of the box where it was collected by McNair who fired it back goalwards and Thompson was again able to react smothering the effort to avert the danger. Arguably the best chance of the half fell to Edwards when he received the ball centrally after good interplay between Lomax and Michael Sykes-Wright had found him in space and the striker lofted an effort over the advancing keeper which went narrowly over the bar.

Against the run of play Colne doubled their advantage just prior to the interval, Hart sent the ball to the far post from the right side of the area and Saunders was on hand to turn the ball home.

The second period saw the visitors happy to sit on their advantage and it took Town until the 67th minute to muster an effort at goal as Sykes-Wright fired narrowly wide from 30 yards. Ten minutes from time Town eventually made an impact on the score sheet as Lomax got into the box and was felled by Morrison and Chris Williams converted the spot kick. This could have set up a blockbusting end to the contest had it not been for Town conceding virtually straight away as a long diagonal ball towards Colne’s right wing saw Sykes-Wright only able to flick it into the path of Hart who was able to bear down on goal and derail the comeback just as soon as it had begun.

Town had another couple of chances in added on time as first Mero Waugh headed a free kick just wide of the right hand post and then Edwards fired an effort that was heading towards the top right hand corner of the net but struck a defender and was cleared to safety.

Town travel to Norton United on Saturday 12th January, kick off 3.00pm