ST HELENS Town returned to action following two weekends of postponements and picked up where they left off with a third consecutive win, this time 4-2 over a resilient Daisy Hill at Volair Park, Prescot.

Their latest victory lifted them to ninth in the Hallmark Securities NW Counties First Division table.

Town took the field missing two key players in captain Andy Gillespie and midfield strongman Ant Whelan. New recruit Liam Dodd was introduced into midfield and Dale Korie-Butler donned the talismanic number 9 shirt and turned in his best performance for several games. Daisy Hill started the game strongly, former Town player Matthew Davidson going close in the early stages and Danny Greene and Korie-Butler honing their shooting skills for Town, but Andy Webster led his defence well and both sides cancelled each other out until just after the mid-point of the half.

Then, on 27 minutes, Daisy Hill broke the deadlock when Hensley Mills latched on to a neat pass and tucked the ball past Adam Fairchild to put the visitors ahead.

Hardly had they had chance to celebrate taking the lead, St Helens were back on level terms, Luke Edwards providing a low pass for Ste Rigby to put his head in bravely among the defenders’ legs to equalise at the other end two minutes later.

This seemed to spur Town into action and, after 33 minutes, Edwards laid on a cross for Korie-Butler, which went just over the crossbar and, with three minutes left before half-time, Edwards, celebrating his 25th birthday, sent in a curling free kick from the right touchline which beat keeper Dryden and gave Town a handy 2-1 lead at the break.

The second-half began in much the same way as the first, with Daisy Hill testing Town’s defence for most of the early stages and St Helens seemingly happy to sit back and see what the visitors had to offer.

This approach appeared to backfire in the 58th minute when referee Matt McQuillan spotted a push on the edge of the home penalty area and awarded a spot kick, much to the disdain of the Town players, which resulted in a goal for Ashley Stott and the sort of birthday card Edwards would surely have preferred not to have received from the Wigan official on reflection for his impromptu greeting, which will no doubt cost him £10 for the privilege exercising his views.

At 2-2, the match could have gone either way, but Alan Gillespie dispelled his words of wisdom and sent on Shaun Brady, who injected pace up front to stretch the visitors’ tiring defence.

Town quickly regained the lead through Korie-Butler in the 69th minute with a wonderfully hit free-kick across the face of the goal and into the top right hand corner and Brady himself tied up the win with the fourth and final goal in the 90th minute, after good work from Korie-Butler out on the right.

Korie-Butler might have scored himself, but he unselfishly laid off the ball to Brady, who was better placed, but it was no simple tap in for the youngster, who still had work to do and, picking his spot, Brady still had to draw keeper Dryden before coolly ensuring the ball found the back of the net.

Town’s next two games are at home: Saturday’s fixture against Silsden takes place at Ashton Town (kick-off at 3pm) and then they return to Prescot on Thursday night (7.45pm) in a re-arranged clash against AFC Blackpool.

St. Helens will be looking to complete league doubles against both clubs, having already won 4-1 at Silsden and 3-1 at Blackpool but despite superiority over both in the league table, neither win can be considered a foregone conclusion, particularly on unpredictable pitches at this stage of the season.

There are many key games still to be played if a place in the play-offs is to be secured, none more so than the trip to Sandbach United on Saturday, 18th February, which comes only two days after the Blackpool game.

As the table above shows, even if Town were to win the next two games and begin to close some of the gap on Sandbach in the last of the play-off places, Widnes and Prestwich Heys both have five matches each in hand on St. Helens, so they will both have to embark on poor runs of form to waste their own chances, irrespective of what Town do.

All Town can do is keep up the winning run and hope the teams above them cut each others’ throats along the way and see how the table looks as the season enters its final stages around Easter time.

One thing has been clear from the start this time around: the First Division promotion race has been the keenest for years and years and will remain so for many more weeks to come.