PORT moved out of the bottom two relegation places in the Powergen Northern Division's South Lancs/Cheshire Two section with victory over fourth-placed Manchester on Saturday.
Captain Neil Percival said: 'That's been coming for a while and with two wins from our last three outings, we're looking for a better second half of the season. We played on our smaller pitch which is slightly heavier as we knew Wanderers have some good runners, whereas our strengths are up front and we smashed them to bits.'
Percival opened the scoring with a pushover try from the pack which was converted by Dave Layder, but the visitors' flying winger responded with an unconverted try out of nothing.
Phil Gow, who started in the centres, touched down for Port's second with Layder again converting. But once again the Manchester wing man went under and this time the bonus points were added to make the interval score 14-12.
Port survived some intense pressure before half-time and Layder missed penalties either side of the break.
The hosts had made some major readjustments on 40 minutes and their forwards started to dominate, while the boot of Paul Millington saw them home with a penalty and last-minute drop goal.
Andrew Slawson & Partners MoM was Dan Norcross.
Ellesmere Port U15 17 St Helens 17: Port squandered a half-time 17-point lead to draw with a strong-finishing St Helens side in what was a good game by two emerging sides.
The hosts took the lead 10 minutes in with a flowing back-line move when Kieran Green scored the first of his two tries and then doubled the lead with a similar move.
Shortly before half-time, Port pressure paid off with well-worked forward driving concluding in a pick and go for Gaz Robins. The try was converted by Elliot Burns, taking Port's first-half total to 17.
The second half was in complete contrast to the first with all the play coming from St Helens as Port took their foot off the gas.
MoM Elliot Burns typified the excellent defensive work, on one occasion even ripping the ball and clearing to touch as the St Helens player was about to score.
The inevitable came on 45 and 60 minutes with St Helens scoring two unconverted tries. This was quickly followed by a moment of ball watching with Port being guilty of not playing to the referee's whistle.
A scuffed drop-goal attempt rebounded off a Port player and was pounced on by St Helens under the posts.
The resulting conversion was simple and tied the game at 17 each. But although Port came back to life and made all the play in the remaining five minutes, they could not turn that possession into any more points.
