ST HELENS Town suffered the double whammy of a postponement of their Macron Challenge Cup tie with Bootle on Saturday, then a refusal by Prescot Cables to honour their ground-sharing agreement to rearrange their game for Monday evening, leaving them at the mercy of the Hallmark Security League for non-fulfilment of a fixture and loss of home advantage for the tie, all through no fault of their own.

A hard frost overnight put the game on Saturday afternoon at risk, but more than 90 per cent of the pitch had thawed by 2pm, but the match officials were not prepared to wait and see if the corner nearest to the turnstiles on Eaton Street would warm through sufficiently for the match to go ahead.

Both clubs then met together and agreed between themselves, weather permitting, to try again on Monday evening, but could not contact Prescot Cables to get the necessary permission to confirm the game could definitely go ahead.

The Macron Cup rules provided for any re-arrangement to be played by Thursday, 1 December, but as Bootle had a game arranged for Wednesday and Town on Thursday, Monday was the only real option.

Prescot vetoed the proposed new date and other local clubs could not accommodate Town at short notice, so Town face a fine of between £250 and £1000 for non-fulfilment of fixture and have been informed by the league that the game will go ahead at Bootle next Tuesday, 6th December, at 7.45pm. Whichever team emerges successfully will travel to Ashton Athletic in the Quarter-Finals on Saturday, 11th March.

Meanwhile, Town face City of Liverpool FC at Prescot on Thursday (7.45) in the Quarter-Finals of the Reusch First Division Cup and travel the short distance to Edge Green Street to take on bottom club Ashton Town in a First Division game on Saturday, kick-off at 3pm.

Last season, St Helens drew 4-4 in the corresponding fixture and lost 0-1 at home.

Ashton lost last week at Eccleshall and crashed out of the Liverpool Senior Cup 0-9 at home to Prescot Cables and have won only once this season in the league