AFTER last week’s heavy home defeat, which saw Town drop to bottom of the league, the last thing the team wanted was a trip to reigning champions Sefton Athletic.

In the reverse fixture early in the season Town suffered a 4-1 defeat, so expectations weren’t exactly high going into the game.

Town started well, and displayed a confidence in possession that has been lacking at times this season.

Alex Higham on the right of the attack caused the Sefton defence all sorts of trouble, but failed to create any clear cut chances. Town continued to dominate the first half without creating any meaningful attacks on goal.

The closest they came to breaking the deadlock was through captain Michael “Smiler” Rowlinson who nicked the ball off the Sefton center-back and sent a shot millimeters wide of the far post.

In fact it was Sefton who, against the run-of-play had the best chances to score, only to see their two best efforts thwarted by Town keeper Ruairi McDaid.

Town have had good halves this season, and the Town faithful were expecting to see a strong fight back from the home side in the second half.

From the first minute of the second half however, Town continued to dominate the game and within six minutes of the restart they took the lead.

The Town defence broke down a Sefton attack, a couple of passes later saw midfielder Danny Hughes hit a perfect pass over the top for striker Ryan Cook to beat the offside trap and finish coolly past the Sefton keeper.

The Sefton team must have been expecting a walk in the park, and seemed genuinely shocked at the course of the game.

Town continued to defend solidly, and showed a composure on the ball, that frustrated the opposition. In the 64th minute, some nice, quick passing on the edge of the box led to goalscorer Cook being brought down in the box.

Player of the match, Chris Greene stepped up to take the penalty, and though the keeper got fingers to it, it was too well placed to keep out.

That penalty strike ended a run of four previously missed penalties which must have been a relief to the manager Paul “Peo” Piert..

Town were in cruise-control for the rest of the game, and despite a few speculative efforts from Sefton, were never in any danger and ran out 2-0 victors.

Speaking after the game, Peo said : “All credit to the lads who have been going out there every week. We knew rebuilding the team was going to be a tough process, and I’m delighted for them.

"But we know this is just one result, and we need to keep doing what we’re doing and we’ll start to see more just like it.”

Town now hope to take this result as a springboard to their season, and are away again on 19 November against East Villa in a 3pm Kick Off at the Jeffrey Humble Sports Ground in Aintree.