St Helens Town’s Macron Cup hopes hit for six by Skelmersdale United

Town’s hopes of progressing to the fourth round of the Macron Cup were hit for six at the JMO Sports Park last night, bringing down the curtain on a season in which they finished bottom of the NWCL first division table.

David Platt’s boys can have no complaints about the result, even though the final score line flattered the hosts.

It was end-to-end stuff early on with underdogs St Helens putting the cat among the pigeons by taking an 11th minute lead through Ben Cartwright following a dangerous-looking free kick.

United had a golden opportunity to draw level eight minutes from the break but Emini Adegbenro, who went on to snatch a hat-trick, missed from the penalty spot.

But rather than rock the hosts on their heels the missed spot kick acted as a shot of adrenaline and by the interval they had established a commanding 3-1 advantage through goals from Adegbenro (41 mins and 45 mins) and Daniel Mitchley (first half injury time).

It was a signal for Skem to raise their game to a higher level and there was little the Ruskin Drive outfit could do to stem the tide.

Ken Strickland grabbed a fourth in the 54th minute before Adegbenro (84 mins) and Ibrahim Conteh (89 mins) wrapped up what in the end turned out to be a comfortable victory for the home side.

Teams

Skelmersdale: Barnes, Griffiths, Preston, Herbert, Lees, Strickland, Morris, Grogan, Mitchley, Conteh, Adegbenro.

Subs: Salked, Servuts, Croughan, Holden, Howard.

Town: Jones, Caddick, Jansen, Kamara, Brown, Clarke, Apperley, McHugh, Corrie-Butler, Cartwright, Douglas.

Subs: Critchlow, Onuh, Tulombe, Akhigbe-Midu.

Referee: Thomas De Prez.

Attendance: 181.