LEE Jenkinson will be in charge when St Helens Town visit Eccleshall in the Macron Cup second round on Saturday, writes Glyn Jones.

The assistant boss has agreed to take over on a short-term basis after the club found itself in a difficult position this week.

Joint manager Nick Matthews resigned ahead of Saturday's 1-1 draw at Bacup Borough, while fellow joint manager Alan Gillespie is in the USA on business.

Bacup keeper Arron Ashley denied Town early on and in a rare sortie upfield, Bacup were awarded a penalty after Ant Whelan mistimed a challenge.

Johnny Thompson’s spot kick was brilliantly saved by Lee Novak.

Andy Webster went close, heading over the bar from a corner, and Ste Rigby hit a wonderful cross from the touchline which almost crossed the goal-line under the crossbar, but Ashley saved well once again.

The keeper had no chance when Town Rigby weaved through to set up young midfielder Dale Korie-Butler to slot home.

The chaotic second half saw Town in control and tempers reached boiling point on the home bench as a substitute was dismissed and three of the coaching staff sent from the bench for abusive language aimed at the referee.

In the last of the added minutes, Town’s old adversary Adrian Bellamy rose majestically at the far post to nod past Novak to claim an equalising goal.

In midweek, Town went down 3-2 against Oswestry at The Venue.

The loss was scant reward for the effort put in.

Korie-Butler, making his full debut, opened his scoring account for the club in the eighth minute with a well-placed shot from 12 yards to beat former St Helens goalkeeper Richard Cowderoy.

The young midfielder might have had a second a short time later as he burst through a hole in the home defence with an Oswestry man holding on to his shoulders, but the referee failed to notice the infringement and the defender just did enough to spoil Korie-Butler’s chance.

As the first half wore on, the home side took more of a controlling influence on the game and Town had to mount a rearguard action.

There were several outstanding contributions to keep the Shropshire side at bay, notably from Paul Carney and Ant Whelan who cleared well off the line to keep the scoreline blank.

However, Town’s luck ran out in the 32nd minute.

A cross found the head of Andy Webster who inadvertently turned the ball just inside his left post to level the scores.

Into the second half, Luke Edwards hit a powerful drive which stung Cowderoy’s hands but nobody was close enough to get to the spilled ball.

At the other end, Oswestry had a goal chalked off for offside and they had a man booked.

 Korie-Butler hit another wonder shot from 35 yards out from near the touchline which beat Cowderoy but crashed against the crossbar.

On 73 minutes, Brendon Price scored against the run of play and Ollie Jones added another from a harshly awarded free-kick.

With Oswestry down to 10 men, Eddie Pegler hit a rasping shot which Cowderoy did well to tip around a post before Whelan rounded off an excellent defensive performance by hitting his first goal for the club, a piledriver from 30 yards with the last kick of the game.