ST ANNES completed the National Conference League 'double' over relegation threatened Thatto Heath, but they were made to fight all the way by a determined and dogged St Helens outfit.

Conditions were extremely heavy under foot and wet and windy for good measure and both teams struggled to hold on to the ball in the opening quarter.

But on 15 minutes, Saints broke the deadlock when winger Ryan Blake raced down the touchline before turning the ball inside for scrum-half Dave Sweeney to cross under the posts for a Danny Tyrell goaled try.

Unfortunate

Second row forwards Dave Gee and John Hughes were the pick of a hard-working Thatto pack, and they were unfortunate not to draw level when Steve Brown picked up a grubber kick from stand-off Kevin Haselden, and seemed set to race in for a score, only to be ruled offside.

Thatto must also have felt hard done by when Mike Woods was denied a score in the corner for a foot in touch.

Inspired by these let-offs the home side's pack started to get on top, making the most of the difficult terrain.

But Heath must have felt as though they were matching the home side in all departments and with more luck could have gone into the break at least on level terms.

St Annes almost extended their lead early in the second half when Ryan Knight came close, before Deakin was held close to the line.

But finally the Thatto defence did falter when Tyrell scooted in from dummy-half and added the extras to double the Oldham tally.

The last quarter of the game came to life when Dave Gee broke through some sloppy tackling to go under near the post and Mike Woods added the goal.

Thatto pressed but they could not get the breakthrough they sought, and when Wallace slotted home a field goal with two minutes remaining, the game was beyond Thatto who are now stuck in the bottom three.

Thatto men of the match were Johnny Hughes and Mark Hayton.

Keiron Cunningham will be signing copies of his testimonial calendar at the LSH clubhouse from 1.15pm before Thatto's home game with Thornhill. Kick off 2pm.