A BREAK in the weather in the Wigan and West Manchester area allowed a limited number of Hallmark Security League games to go ahead last Saturday, among them St. Helens Town’s home game against Eccleshall, re-located to Ashton Town’s Edge Green Street ground, which duly passed an early morning pitch inspection.

The ground was heavy, having staged games the previous Wednesday and Saturday, Eccleshall grabbing a late equaliser against Ashton Town seven days earlier to snatch a dramatic 3-3 draw in a battle of the First Division’s two basement clubs, so they travelled in hope of achieving another positive result against St Helens and very nearly achieved their ambition.

The saying that “mud is a great leveller” was not very far from the mark, although did little justice to the efforts of the Ashton groundsman, who produced a good playing surface in all the circumstances, but it was no surprise it started to cut up, given the recent rain.

Nevertheless, both sides entered into the spirit of the contest, having taken on board referee Abid Hussain’s pre-match instructions to avoid silly challenges.

Town had already beaten Eccleshall twice away from home this season quite comprehensively, but the visitors arrived in a quite different mood, bolstered by a recent managerial change and their defence was certainly a lot stronger. The first 35 minutes of the game were very even and produced little efforts of note for either goalkeeper to deal with.

However, ten minutes from the break, Town began to apply the pressure and after two wayward shots had gone over the bar, Luke Edwards spooned what appeared to be an easy chance over again from an Andy Gillespie cross.

Fortunately for him, though, he was only sharpening his aim, for in the very next move, on 39 minutes, a low, goal-bound shot from Dale Korie-Butler was tapped into the net by Edwards.

Whether it would have gone in anyway was quite another matter, but the scorer was taking no chances on the difficult surface.

This was his tenth goal of the season: only captain Gillespie (20) has scored more and he is already looking to better last season’s haul of 34.

Further pressure was exerted in the remaining six minutes before half-time, but it was all to no avail and the teams traipsed off, glad of the break, with Town 1-0 ahead.

The second half followed much the same pattern as the first, neither defence giving an inch until the last five minutes when Eccleshall suddenly found an opening and skipper Thomas Wakefield had the ball at his feet with an empty goal in front of him but, unaccountably, just as Edwards had done, scooped it high over the bar.

In the final minute, Andy Gillespie surged through the middle and set up Ant Whelan who connected well with the ball only for Eccleshall keeper Bradley Moorhead to get down well and tip the ball round the post for a corner.

The final whistle blew soon afterwards, leaving St. Helens ninth in the table, with 38 points from 26 matches.

Of the 16 remaining games, 11 are at home, including the next four, the first of which is against AFC Blackpool at Prescot Cables’ ground next Saturday, 21st January, kick-off at 3pm. Blackpool earned a morale-boosting 2-1 victory over high-flying Sandbach on Saturday, so despite Town’s early season win at the Mechanics’ Ground, they will be a tough nut to crack this time round.

The top two clubs at the end of the season will gain automatic promotion, with one from the next four winning promotion from a play-off.

At the moment, the club in sixth position are currently 10 points clear of Town, so St. Helens need to maintain a long winning sequence, coupled with a loss of form of two or three other clubs above them for Town to gain a play-off place.

Not only that, but Town need to finish in a high position to earn a place in next season’s FA Cup.

Despite a battling performance at the end of last season, they just missed out on the play-off places and, by a very slender margin, on the FA Cup, for the first time in their 70-year history.