St Helens Town 0 Trafford 2 (FA Cup Preliminary Round)

PAUL Lodge's youthful St Helens troops may have lost this FA Cup tie, but their spirited all round display won the hearts of a good crowd at Knowsley Road last Friday evening.

The visitors, who only last season were a Unibond club settled first and looked for the pace of Rico Richards on the break but Town's well executed offside trap repeatedly frustrated them.

Indeed, the first real goal threat came at the other end on 12 minutes when Town's Phil Kelly hoisted a teasing cross which Ward in the Trafford goal was happy to back pedal and push over.

At this point, Town were working like tigers, none more so than Dunne, Nocton and Duffy at the heart of the defence, with the former deserving his piece of luck when Richards miscued after dispossessing him in a chase back.

By the half hour mark Town were looking comfortably behind their offside trap and began to carry the fight to Trafford who had a major fright when their keeper Ward was robbed by Varns some 20-yards out of his area.

As the Town target man tried to tee up Anderson, Trafford's Swither got in a crucial block.

The pace and crossing of Fairbrother on the St Helens left was also now becoming a telling factor and a Varns header beat the keeper only for Swither to rescue Trafford with a clearance off the line.

By the hour mark Richards was again becoming influential for Trafford and town keeper Robertson was left for dead having sold himself but a slip on the greasy surface ended the scare.

Robertson then did well to hold a fierce low cross from Tilley when any spillage would have meant a tap in for the lurking Turner.

A minute later the inevitable happened as Town's reliance on the offside trap came unstuck and Trafford's Mike Turner went clear to round Robertson and slot into the Edington end net.

Heartbreaking

It was a heartbreaker for St Helens' young battlers and they lost concentration for the only time in the match and it allowed the Mancunians to wrap things up on 76 minutes when non-existent defending allowed Dino D' Agrosa a simple header from a corner kick.

However, the Town fledglings closed by warming to the support they had received and were only denied a consolation by a fine save by Ward as he parried aside a screamer by Mike Duffy.

Though town may be out of the FA Cup there were pluses and minuses to be drawn from this.

The learning curve continues with two home games in four days when firstly Nantwich Town come to Knowsley Road on Saturday (kick off 3pm). Then on Tuesday, September 2 Alsager are the victors (kick off 7.45pm).