St Helens Town's campaign gets off to a rocky start at Waterloo Dock

Having been relegated to the Liverpool County Premier League, the entire first team has had to be rebuilt and the task has not been made easier in delays in the new owners being granted access to the club’s workings.

That being said, it was always going to be a baptism of fire for any new team going into a very competitive and challenging league, where the clubs and teams are well established, and also want to take the scalp of the new boys.

The game started off lively, with both teams creating chances.

Town’s keeper Ruairi McDaid made a couple of fine saves early on to keep his side level, while at the other end, the pace of Youseph Alasaly was causing the Waterloo defence all manner of problems.

The biggest of which came when he was brought down on the edge of the box by the Waterloo keeper when through on goal.

The red card meant the home side had to play over 60 minutes in blazing heat with ten men.

Town struggled to make their one man advantage count and though they hit the bar from a great shot by Michael Lacey and were well on top in general play, they went into the break level.

The experience and composure that comes with a settled and experienced side showed in the second half as the Waterloo Dock team never looked under any real pressure.

Town’s attacking play was too direct, and they failed to exploit any advantage of speed they had over the Waterloo defenders. The closest they came to breaking the deadlock was a chance created by Town striker Ryan Cook and a deflected defensive header that almost caught the makeshift keeper off guard.

A few more fine saves from Town’s man-of-the-match keeper kept his side in it, but with ten minutes to go Waterloo finally managed to break through and score to take all three points in what was probably a much tougher opener than they were expecting.

Town’s next game is at home this Saturday at Ruskin Drive against last season’s champions Sefton Athletic. Kick off is at 3pm.