LIVERPOOL St Helens ran out 51-21 winners when they welcomed Southport to Moss Lane for the second league game of the season in perfect, running rugby conditions.
After a two minute silence in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, LSH immediately went on the attack with some good interplay between forwards and backs, and as a result of this, Matty Johnson found Jake Dickinson out wide to score his first try of the season.
Converted by Matty Wood. Back on the attack following the restart, and after a period of sustained pressure the visitors conceded a penalty converted by Wood before slowly working their way into the game.
With the homesters not being able to clear their lines, they scored a short range converted try followed by a second score to take the lead, 10-14.
LSH responded and turning down a very kickable penalty, Wood kicked to the corner. #From the resulting line out move, Joe Jackson romped down the touchline to once again give LSH the narrowest of leads at half time. After the restart Northey's men forced a mistake in the Southport 22.
From the resulting play scrum half Ryan Glynn took the ball to the Southport defence, and found Romano to go in for another converted try.
LSH then seemed to now lift a couple of gears, and exert more pressure on the visitors, and following a terrific move Wood sliced through the Southport defence untouched to score, which he duly converted, 29-14.
LSH continued to attack from the restart and after a break from Connor Glynn, Alex McClurg, who was having a terrific game in both defence and attack, took the ball in support, and rounded the full back to score just to the left of the sticks, converted once again by Wood, 36-14.
LSH continued to attack and a 50/22 kick brought more pressure on the visitors line, with Chris Hull scoring from short range, converted to put them 29 points in front.
Once again though, LSH where guilty of easing off and Southport retaliated with their last converted try, before LSH completed the scoring with another Wood penalty and Ian Stanley finishing off a lovely passage of play to score an unconverted try.
This gave the homesters another bonus point win, sending them to the top of the league, with maximum points from their opening two fixtures.
Next game: Saturday 17 September away at West Park. 3pm.
Pictures: Colin/Julia Douglas.
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