ST Helens Town bounced back from their narrow defeat away to runaway league leaders Hanley Town with a hard-earned 2-1 win at Widnes on Saturday.

It was the first league meeting between the sides at the Select Security Stadium, although the sides met last season in a remarkable Men United Cup tie which saw Town surrender a 4-1 first half lead, only to go out on penalties after extra time.

They were obviously keen to avoid giving away any such advantage on this occasion, for they raced into a two goal lead within 19 minutes and had to withstand a good deal of pressure from the home side to see out the remaining minutes to wrap up the three points.

Widnes opened well, but George Lomax proved too sharp for the home defence when he ran on to a defence-splitting pass to fire Town ahead with a crisp shot in the tenth minute.

St. Helens went further ahead nine minutes later, captain Andy Gillespie’s downward header catching former Prescot Cables’ young keeper Ben Morrow off guard as the ball crept under hit body into the home net for his 22nd goal of the season.

Town looked reasonably comfortable at 2-0 up, but the memories of last season’s cup-tie will have been uppermost in the captain’s mind as he marshalled his charges to keep a tight grip on the Widnes team, particularly striker Jamil Campbell-Joseph who did much of the damage last time around.

He was prominent again in this game, but the real fightback began after half time.

Widnes brought on substitute Antoine Recziac and eight minutes after the resumption, a cross from the left was headed back by Campbell-Joseph and Recziac headed in directly in front of goal to give Matt Hodge no chance.

At 2-1, with the home side’s tails up, they began to attack in earnest and Hodge was called on to make a succession of good saves, but at the other end, Gillespie and Lomax in particular were inventive in attack and both were unfortunate not to add to their goal tallies.

St Helens are playing with real confidence these days.

They are fielding a settled team. They know how each other plays and they work for each other.

There are still 12 games to play but of the 22 already played, only two have been drawn and they were both in September, successive home games against Cheadle and Barnton.

There have been nine defeats, but there have been eleven wins, including a 3-2 home win against Widnes, plucked from the jaws of defeat in the last few minutes.

The next few games will be a good test as to where the team will finish the season: a trip to Bacup on Saturday, followed by Whitchurch away on Easter Saturday and a local derby at home to Ashton Town at Brocstedes Park on Easter Monday. Positive results from those three games will provide a welcome boost towards qualification for the promotion play-off places and the FA Cup for next season.