THE Moss Lane Faithful have been spoilt this year with a number of cracking games of rugby at Moss Lane and Saturday saw another, with Liverpool St Helens defeating Glossop 21-18.

In a late change, LSH were forced to move winger Jake Hodson to full back in place of Dan Filson and bring in Connor Thompson on the wing with Andy Northey prophetically allocating the kicking duties to Matty Johnston, recalled at fly half.

LSH made a great start scoring in the 4th minute, when, after a forwards drive, the ball was swung along the back line to Hodson, joining in to round the Glossop defence and score by the right hand corner flag. Johnston landed the touchline conversion. The visitors then showed their intent with a series of attacks, all repelled by strong LSH tackling, until the line was breached in the 15th minute for a converted try to level the scores at 7-7.

Six minutes later Johnston slotted a 30 yard penalty to edge LSH ahead. An even period of play followed up to the half hour mark when calamity struck for LSH. An unfortunate mix up between Dave Sutton and Jake Hodson when retrieving an innocuous kick through, saw the ball launched into fresh air before being eagerly snapped up by the Glossop right wing to run through unopposed for their second try.

In keeping with the end to end nature of the game the pair then fully redeemed themselves with LSH’s superb second try on the stroke of half time. A move featuring both centres Alex McClurg and Josh Lynch saw Hodson once again joining in before the ball was passed to Sutton who outpaced his opposite number to score in the left hand corner to give LSH a three point lead.

Glossop had the better of the exchanges in the first ten minutes of the second half, registering a penalty in the 49th minute to level the scores again. Crucially however the LSH defence stood firm and with both sides winning their own scrums but with the LSH line out thankfully working effectively, LSH went past the hour mark ready to take control and did so with majority possession thereafter. This in turn led to a sequence of penalties in the final ten minutes.

After kicking to the corner had brought no joy, Johnston landed another 30 yarder in the 74th minute to give LSH the lead before Glossop replied in the next attack with a penalty of their own to make it 18-18. Then with one minute to go and most terrace dwellers thinking of heading to the bar with sporting thoughts of a “fair result” LSH were awarded another penalty, this time around 35 yards out. Up stepped young Johnston, his blue headgear shining through the rapidly failing light, to unerringly slot the ball between the posts to give LSH the win.

Second placed LSH visit league leaders Broughton Park next Saturday. 2.15