Saturday 17th February 2018 – St Helens 8 – 0 City of Manchester
We bounced back to winning ways today with a comfortable win against a struggling City of Manchester (COM) team. Given the away fixture saw us just scrape a 4-3 win it was expected that today would be another close game.
We started quickly and early on it was clear that the quick and incisive play between our midfield and forwards would cause problems for COM and despite an early scare from the only real attack of the game from COM we were soon in front. The first of the 8 came from centre forward Alan Travis who gave the keeper no chance with a ferocious strike high into the roof of the goal. From that goal we didn’t really look back and it was no surprise when Danny Taylor added a second shortly after. The main threat from COM came on the break when they looked to get numbers forward quickly, however we handled everything with relative ease.
The third goal came after Lucas Delanchy chased down a lost cause allowing Lewis Robinson to score his first. By now it was one way traffic and a second goal from Lewis Robinson saw us head into half time 4 goals up. The aim at half time was to keep up the same level of performance and try to help our goal difference, just in case it comes down to that. No sooner had the second half begun and we’d scored our 5th, Alan Travis with another emphatic finish. Next on the scoresheet was Lucas Delanchy who scored the first of his double with a smart finish.
The COM keeper in between the scoring was making some fine saves and both Alan & Lewis had efforts saved that would have sealed hattricks for them. Lucas added his 2nd and then the scoring was finished by captain Phil Travis who was on the end of a superb assist* from John Graham to leave us 8 up. We played out the game searching for more goals but credit to COM who didn’t give up and kept going right to the end.
The win keeps us there or thereabouts in the promotion chase, although with Urmston winning again it looks unlikely that we’ll take that 2nd spot for a promotion. That being said we’re going to continue to focus on winning our games and see where that leaves us.
Next week we travel to Bolton and will look for another 3 points. With 4 games remaining the aim is 12 points from 12.
*mis-hit
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