LIVERPOOL St Helens showed from the kick-off in this Powergen Cup second-round match at Hare Lane that they were in no mood to fall into the same trap as their National League rivals New Brighton had a fortnight earlier.

Within 10 minutes they were 8-0 up, having scored a Simon Worsley penalty and crossed the line wide out for an unconverted try.

In the 12th minute, Saints winger Cunliffe was yellow-carded for foul play, but this did not relieve the pressure on Chester who fell further behind when Martin Gaskill crossed for Worsley to convert, making it 15-0 in their favour after only 20 minutes of play.

Virtually all the play had been played in the Chester half, but when the home club finally forced their way into the Liverpool half, they were awarded a penalty which Murray King converted to put Chester on the scoreboard at 15-3.

Discipline was a problem for Chester, who were fortunate that Worsley missed a number of penalty chances, and the referee finally yellow-carded Gavin Woods for fighting on the half hour.

The resulting penalty gave the visitors a good field position, enabling Handley to score beneath the posts after Chester were harshly penalised for a front-row offence. Worsley added the extra points to give Liverpool a comfortable half-time lead at 22-3.

Whether Saints relaxed is open to debate, but Chester never let their heads drop and put up a fine defensive performance in the second half. They battled against the powerful, well-drilled National

League Three side and were disappointed to concede the only score of the second half, an excellent try by centre Young following slick three-quarter play.

The final score of 27-3 in favour of LSH was justified, although Chester must take a great deal of credit for their second-half performance with Walker Smith & Way man-of-the-match Neil Parsley enjoying his best game for the club so far.

Chester have enjoyed a good run in the country's major cup competition, but winning the league must now be their priority.