ST HELENS Town are in need of a confidence boost, writes Glyn Jones.

After falling two goals behind at Eccleshall on Saturday, they turned on the style to dominate the second-half and had the home side on the rack at 2-2 and it only seemed a matter of time before they scored the winning goal when the Staffordshire club hit them on the break and netted the winner three minutes from time.

Missing a number of first-choice players, including Andy Gillespie, Joel Douglas and Luke Edwards, Town started very slowly in the warm conditions and this encouraged Eccleshall, who played an expansive passing game, using the full width of the pitch.

A long ball down the left channel in the sixth minute produced a chance which Adam Fairchild did well to reach, but he could only parry the shot and Danny Needham was close at hand to tap the loose ball into the unguarded net to put the home side 1-0 up.

Shaun Brady surged forward for Town and he was unlucky to see his goal-bound shot deflected off the under-side of a defender’s boot.

Twenty minutes into the game, Town went two goals behind when Eccleshall attacked again down the left and found the St. Helens defence exposed to allow Louis Downs too much room to sweep his shot past the hapless Fairchild.

Town gradually fought back to establish a foothold in the game and Danny Forrester had a goal chalked off for a tight offside call in the 27th minute, then Liam Dodd went close with a headed effort from a corner three minutes later, stand-in keeper Craig Bould saving at the second attempt.

St. Helens failed to convert their chances before half-time and just before the break, Fairchild saved his side from further embarrassment, tipping a well-hit shot on to his crossbar to keep the deficit to two goals at the break.

The second half was virtually all one-way traffic, although Town had to wait until the 68th minute to register their first goal, man-of-the-match Brady dribbling around the defence before taking two further touches to round the keeper ahead of netting a well-earned goal.

He very nearly scored a second four minutes later from an identical position, only to see the ball hit the far post with the open goal at his mercy.

Substitute Patrice Kwofie then hit a wonderful goal, in a similar vein to Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson’s effort against Hajduk Split earlier in the week, to level the scores and it really was only a matter of time until St. Helens took the lead and how many they would win by, such was the level of their superiority at this stage.

Matthew Moody had another chance for Town on his full debut, Bould pulling out all the stops to make a save and then, in the closing stages, from yet another St. Helens corner-kick, the ball broke upfield and, with the visitors’ defence at full stretch, Eccleshall substitute Elliot Booth struck the winning goal to give the home side their first win of the season, the final score being Eccleshall 3 Town 2.

It won’t take much to turn around Town’s fortunes and they just need a little more belief in themselves to get over the winning line.

Their next game is against Silsden on Saturday at Ruskin Drive, with a 3.00pm kick-off, ahead of the long trip to Carlisle City on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday sees the meeting of the Hallmark Security League Management Committee, when Town will learn whether or not they will have to replay their home fixture against Abbey Hulton United, which was abandoned on 17th August, in the final minute with the score 0-0, with only the visitors’ penalty kick to be taken.