St Helens Town 2-3 Cheadle Town
Fine lines. "Sliding doors moments". Call them what you will.
If you wanted a demonstration of such phenomena then the opening fifteen minutes of the second half of this match at Ruskin Park was perfect.
2-0 up at half-time we laid siege on the St Helens goal straight from the restart.
Chris Sherrington forced the keeper into an early save after cutting in from the left, Jake Ambrose was put through on the right only for his effort to get a deflection, a solid 30 seconds of continuous strikes on goal - pinball, if you will - yielded nothing and George Clarey struck the post twice.
On the next foray on the 60th minute a moment of "after you, Claude" meant that St Helens were able to break the full length of the pitch, put in a cross from the right for Brady to tuck home at the far post; from looking the most likely to score next, in the blink of an eye it was 2-1. And game on.
Two minutes later and their no11 dances through our defence to scuff the bottom of the post. We were having a minor wobble and desperately needed respite.
That came two minutes later in the form of an over-enthusiastic challenge by St Helens' goalkeeper on Jake Ambrose as he broke into the box. You could argue that he didn't need to make it as the tight angle and distance from goal would have made it difficult for Jake to make anything of it, but it resulted in a penalty which Luke Pearson stroked home to restore the two-goal lead that we had taken into half-time.
For that, we had goals from Antony Trucca and Rick Whyatt to thank.
An encouraging start by us brought its reward after just 11 minutes, although we will be honest and give a nod to the howling wind that definitely played its part for it got hold of Luke Pearson's searching free-kick and aimed it onto the post, catching all unawares, with Antony on-hand to plant home the rebound from close-range.
St Helens' no11 then sent a long-range effort whistling past our post and a dangerous-looking cross just needed a better header.
Jake Ambrose was sent clear on the left but was just beaten to the ball by the keeper before we got our 2-0 lead moments later when Rick Whyatt latched onto a through ball down the right and finished.
Back to the second half and after we had restored that two-goal advantage thanks to Luke Pearson's penalty we had Danny Whiting to thank for it not being whittled down soon after, making an excellent stop with his feet after a corner was whipped in.
As the match entered its final eight minutes both sides had their chances once more.
George Clarey was through on the right and, despite rounding the keeper, either lost his head or completely misjudged his position as his effort went hopelessly wide. It wasn't his day.
From what should have been 4-1 and comfort, 60 seconds later down the other end it became 3-2 and nerves.
A corner whipped in from the left somehow completely evaded Chris Sherrington stood on the near post and was stabbed home from close range by Brady.
Straight from the kick-off substitute Remeece Brown twisted and turned in the box only to see his shot crawl inches wide of the post and there was time for Luke Pearson to send a free-kick just wide as the match came to its close.
A much-needed win after a run of four league matches without one. Next up for us is the visit of Stockport County this Wednesday evening in the Cheshire Senior Cup. Given the night-and-day comparison between our home and away forms, it almost seems a shame it's at Park Road....
TEAM: Whiting, Dunn, Pearson, Trucca, Shaw, Harrison, Clarey, Wood (Brown), Ambrose (Gardiner), Whyatt (Russell), C Sherrington. SUBS: Piggott (gk), Russell, Brown, Gardiner.
