LIVERPOOL St Helens returned to winning ways in the ADM Premier Division with a convincing 48-13 win over lowly Tyldesley, but on a calm January day and an unusually balmy climate, they made heavy weather of it, particularly in the first half.

A muddling first forty minutes saw LSH score three tries, two from Darren Wilson once again in supreme form throughout skilfully orchestrating his side, and one from winger Josh Lynch, interspersed with two from Tyldesley, and punctuated by random skirmishes amongst players on both sides, seemingly having something to prove after a three week lay-off.

With proceedings empathetically handled by a referee refreshingly intent on enabling the game to flow and with two conversions from Alex McCabe, LSH reached half-time 10-19 in front.

The home side landed a penalty early in the second half to come within one score of LSH at 13-19 before the penny finally dropped for LSH.

No doubt with Andy Northey’s words ringing in their ears and undoubtedly helped by Tyldesley’s talismanic Mark Dickinson now off the field with an injured shoulder, they abandoned all previous tactics and decided to run the ball at every opportunity, down the middle, along the backs to the right and along the backs to the left, and play at pace.

LSH’s play was powerfully driven by the brothers Cunliffe in the centre but also featured the growing strength of a very promising back row in Hull, Ward and Webster.

This brought five more tries. The first from McBride after a quick tap penalty from Lynch; an opportunist score from Dan Webster after a quickly taken line out from Jamie Morris; a try for Morris himself bursting through the middle of the park; a blockbuster from John Arnold, nearly doing himself an injury with an exaggerated dive over the line and finally a second from Lynch, once again having another fine game. Two conversions from McBride made it 13-48.

Next Saturday LSH travel to Oldham in the cup. 2.15.