THE biggest crowd among Saturday's Derek Roylance Widnes Cup games saw St Michael's edge a hard but fair group one decider to reach the semi-finals.

Halebank's bright start was rewarded after 20 minutes when Stephen Lewis fired home from the edge of the box.

But St Mike's responded within five minutes as Alan Jones, returning after holiday, rose above Halebank's de-fence to nod Adam Arkle's cross into the top corner.

Before half-time, Craig Griffiths eluded Halebank's defence to net what proved the winner.

Cronton Villa 5 Moorfield 2: In-form Cronton were always favourites in this one, with Premier Division Moorfield going through transition under a new manager.

However, Villa had to come from behind for the victory, which takes them into the knockout stages.

Moorfield were unlucky early on when Elliot Eyo went close, Stephen Teebay scrambling the ball around a post.

Referee Neil Hampson applied the advantage whenever possible to maintain the flow.

Cronton went in front with a 15th-minute Paul McCunnell goal after a fine exchange with Mark Stanton.

But Sam Barr's 30-yarder and an Adam Cavanagh strike gave Moorfield the lead.

Tony Durr levelled before half-time and Cronton capitalised with further goals from Paul Tillett (2) and a rare Jeff Bell strike.

Mill Brow 4 Widnes Bayer 3: Mill Brow won but not by the big margin they needed to overhaul second-placed group two rivals Halton Borough.

Bayer gave a spirited performance

and they have been unfortunate in most of their matches.

Andy Condron opened the scoring for Mill Brow and Matty Mercer equalised after Bayer had been 2-1 up. Lee Faulkner later made it 3-2 for Mill Brow before Bayer equalised again.

Paul Anderson made it 3-3 but Dale Pickton headed the decisive goal.

Halton Borough 2 Village 1: Boro managed to win what was for them another group two game of missed chances.

In the first 15 minutes they hit a post, forced keeper Paul Perryman into some fine saves and were denied by a goal-line clearance.

Five minutes from the break Billy Welch crossed from the left for Neil Travis to slot Village ahead.

Borough continued to attack after half-time and got a lucky break when Mark Southern's would-be clearance from halfway bounced over the un-fortunate Perryman.

Soon after Paul Withers's corner went straight into Village's net.

Perryman pulled off a great penalty save from Mike Higginson - in vain. nIn midweek, Avon had beaten Village 3-2 to consolidate their position in group two. But they were given a fright as David Hunt and Billy Welch put Village 2-0 up at the interval.

Avon came out of their canter, realising they could lose top spot.

Sean Farrell's fourth goal of the competition was followed by a controversial 'offside' equaliser from Phil Pullen, who was at centre forward after playing in goal the previous week.

Pullen followed up with a winning volley 10 minutes from time.

Mill Brow, meanwhile, scored twice in the last eight minutes through sub Mike Colebrook and Lee Faulkner to salvage a 2-2 draw against Halton Borough, who had led through Jonathon Harrison (8) and Mike Higginson (75) but squandered several other opportunities.