For the second time this season, St. Helens Town lost 1-0 to unbeaten NW Counties Premier Division leaders and promotion favourites Runcorn Linnets and despite the seventeen league places between the teams, there was very little to choose between the teams at the Millbank Stadium on Saturday.

In fact, Town could well have won this match and will be extremely disappointed they did not collect a point from the encounter.

This was ideal preparation for next Saturday’s FA Vase game at Alnwick Town and the near 400 crowd created a real cup-tie atmosphere, with the sort of partisan crowd St. Helens can expect to encounter in Northumberland.

Starting without injury victims Karl Bergqvist and Cole Ashton, Town welcomed back Gareth Grant, but the former Runcorn Town midfielder quickly became the pantomime villain for the home crowd, unjustly picking up a booking midway through the first half, following a collision with a Linnets player.

Already on a yellow card, the same player was perhaps fortunate not to be dismissed for a heavy tackle a short time afterwards, but with the crowd demanding a red card, they were silenced just before the interval when one of their own, prolific forward Kevin Towey, was sent off for a poor challenge on Hamish Falconer, which reduced the home side to ten players for more than half the game.

St. Helens played great football during the first half, but several efforts on goal were thwarted by the tight home defence and a solid performance by keeper Richard Mottram.

The best chance of the half fell to Kris Bell, who met an Andy Gillespie shot on the edge of the six yard box after ten minutes, but could not control the ball which had become trapped under his boot.

Gillespie went through on goal on 21 minutes, but River Humphreys just managed to get to the ball in the nick of time, with Chad Whyte bearing down. At the other end, Rory Crowther pulled off two great saves from a Michael White header after 25 minutes and just before the interval, a good shot from Kyle Hamid.

Early in the second half, a long pass from Grant found Bell, whose shot was well saved by Mottram and, with Town pushing forward in search of a goal to win the game, there were chances for Aaron Morris, Gillespie and Bell before the last-named broke down the right then passed inside to Whyte, whose glancing shot beat Mottram but went inches wide of the Runcorn post with fifteen minutes left.

Whyte was replaced by Marcus Perry soon afterwards, but this appeared to coincide with a lull in Town’s performance.

Urged on by the crowd, Linnets pushed forward and, as the visitors’ defence briefly lost concentration, Hamid latched on to a cross and netted for what turned out to be the winning goal, much to the relief of the home players and supporters.

This was rough justice for St. Helens Town’s efforts in a game where, overall, they were the more composed and had the better chances. They will feel they were worth at least a draw, but the young side will have learned valuable lessons in their quest for FA Vase glory and their fight against relegation.

Next up is the trip to Alnwick on Saturday, then the short journey to Marine FC on Tuesday (put back by the League at short notice) to face AFC Liverpool and a home game with Bacup on Saturday, 29th November.

Any replay with Alnwick would take place on Tuesday at Brocstedes Park and the AFC Liverpool game would be postponed.