LIVERPOOL St Helens eventually triumphed 20-3 in this full-on encounter at Northwich in South Lancs/Cheshire Division One.

A game which saw neither side take a step backwards meandered through the first half in which the home side had most of the territory and possession and was then completely dominated by LSH in the second.

LSH went ahead in the 6th minute with a penalty from full back Dan Parkes, matched four minutes later by one from Northwich’s Chris Dutoy to make it 3-3 and that was how the score reached half time as Northwich had most of the chances, as well as two missed penalties.

They were held out by a strong and determined LSH defence, with Matt Cunliffe and Sam Molyneux piling up the tackle count, interspersed with the odd counter attack.

The second half saw LSH winning greater possession and quite literally wearing down the opposition through the forty minutes.

Now playing on the front foot LSH made the pressure tell in the 52nd minute when calling a scrum from a penalty they drove Northwich backwards for scrum half Rob Dyer to dive over the line.

The home side were by now without with their influential skipper Chris Dale and one of the centres due to injuries but continued to counter attack themselves and went close on two occasions before LSH went further ahead in the 71st minute with a try to light up a darkening afternoon.

Matt Cunliffe, seemingly everywhere, broke out of the LSH 22 and found the enthusiastic Joe Bate on his shoulder.

Bate continued the move, rapidly shipping the ball to stand off John Pape as they crossed the half way line.Pape accelerated and outpaced his pursuers to score under the posts, 3-13, converted by Parkes.

With fitness now telling in the final ten minutes, LSH scored again with two minutes to go when another scrum close to the Northwich line produced a trademark try for number 8 Phil Kearns following an eight man pushover.

On Saturday LSH are at home to Ruskin Park, kick off 3pm.

Meanwhile Ruskin Park lost 32-10 at home to Altrincham Kersal with all points, try and two goals, coming from man of the match Adam Fogarty.