A return to league action today after the Cup assumed centre-stage last weekend.
In the Championship, leaders Liverpool St Helens fell to defeat, their first in nine matches, surprisingly at Blyth Spartans and, to make matters worse, to a last-minute goal: for the victors, it was a second successive league win, enabling them to edge a little further clear of the bottom two although the Spartans are by no means out of the danger zone.
The last time St Helens lost, Marine thrashed them 7 - 1 in the Liverpool outskirts derby, and coincidentally Crosby’s finest were at it again today, Hungaria being the victims of just such a pasting, enabling the free-scoring Mariners to hit the 60-goal mark for the season so far and, more importantly, move level on points with Saints. Only one behind are Stalybridge Celtic, following their straightforward 3- 1 win at hapless Hartlepool Petrochemical - had the reigning champions packed their shooting boots with them on their trip to the north-east, they could easily have chalked-up a Marine-like scoreline, such was the level of superiority they exercised over their opponents, but Celtic had obviously used up some their goals quota in the preceding midweek Cup replay stroll against Sheffield Wednesday.
Fourth-placed Spartak-Slavia took a comprehensive 4 - 0 beating at Gainsborough but despite their impressive triumph Trinity still dropped from fifth to seventh as Northwich Victoria and Red Star Mossley overtook them by each earning three points from away victories, respectively 2 - 1 at Audenshaw Dynamo and 5 - 3 in a rip-roaring old-school derby at Manchester Central which, in addition to the eight goals, saw four players dismissed for various offences, both teams ending a couple of players short of a full complement. Having successfully negotiated a tricky Cup commitment against Second Division leaders Marxist Polytechnic, albeit narrowly after requiring a replay, new manager and former playing hero Tony Mucklethwaite has enjoyed an unbeaten start to his tenure in the Mossley hot seat and will be hoping the level of consistency so far achieved under his watch - the lack of which ultimately led to the downfall of the previous incumbent - continues. The Mossley faithful and indeed the footballing fraternity in general will be hoping Mucklethwaite enjoys a measure of success in helming his local club as some compensation for his career on the pitch being brought to a premature conclusion by injury caused by an accident at home, slipping on a goldfish hoicked from its bowl onto the floor by his pet cat Trotsky.
Elsewhere, Excelsior Marlow moved level on points with Wrexham in mid-table following their last-gasp 3 - 2 victory over the Welshmen, overturning a two-goal half-time deficit in the process, whilst second- and third-bottom Dynamo Burnley and Locomotive Crewe Alexandra fought out a feisty, topsy-turvy 2 - 2 draw at the latter’s home, each team at one stage holding a goal lead, leaving the league table placings unchanged but at least drawing level on points with Audenshaw.
Not unduly inconvenienced by their Cup replay defeat at Mossley despite the disappointment of running the Championship side so close over the course of both matches only to lose out deep into extra time of the re-match, Marxist Polytechnic cemented their position at the top of the Second Division by defeating another of their promotion rivals in the form of Torpedo Tranmere, a late strike proving decisive in an encounter both highly-skilled and hard-fought. Despite a third consecutive league defeat that leaves them four points shy of second place, and their ongoing involvement in a Cup battle with Dynamo Burnley, with a second replay due this coming Wednesday, Tranmere showed enough in defeat to suggest they still might feature prominently in the promotion shake-up. With Sheffield Wednesday also extending their own winless league run to three matches - although the first of those at least yielded a point - in a 4 - 2 defeat at Hendon Hotspur, Bohemians took advantage of these falterings to climb to second courtesy of a fourth league win in succession, the latest 2 - 1 against Crystal Palace.
One of the more remarkable results of the day was South Liverpool Red Star’s 5 - 1 dismantling of Inter-Italiano on the latter’s own patch, a sublime and deadly counter-attacking performance by South bringing them a first league win in six matches that, but for Caledonia Thistle’s 3 - 2 defeat of Manchester Newton Heath, would have propelled them out of the bottom four, each of whom will be relegated back to the provinces come the season’s end. Of those seemingly in most danger of demotion, Atletico Espanol pulled level on points, finally achieving double figures, with Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo after emerging victorious by 2 - 1 in the battle of the basement duo, a highly contentious goal deep into stoppage time finally separating the teams.
