By Graham Henthorne, Reserve Team Manager.

 

A very youthful looking Saints Reserves side took on the Bulls less than 24 hours after the heroics of the Seniors and came away just as victorious.

 

The Reserves took a leaf out of the First Team’s book and struck early. Two well taken tries from Paul Leyland and Dean McGilvray, shaking off his bad memories of injury in last year’s game, and a Ste Tyrer goal put the Saints 10 – 0 to the good.

 

The Bulls, fielding first team prop Chris Feather, hit back though and went in at the break with a six point lead thanks to three tries from Nathan Armitage, Vinnie Finnigan and Eddie Kilroy alongside two Luke Helliwell goals.

 

But the Reserves had not finished and in a sensational comeback scored four unanswered tries to put themselves back in the driving seat. Gary Wheeler, Andrew Dixon and Shaun Magennis scored to put the Saints in command before Dave Hull put the game beyond the home side. They did manage a late converted try to make the score look respectable but the points were the Saints’.

 

Graham told Saintsrlfc.com: “The spirit within the camp is second to none and will stand the team in good stead in the future. It was personified in a Man of the Match performance by the Paul Leyland.

 

“Having dropped over two stone in the close season it enabled him to put in the kind of performance we were used to seeing a couple of seasons ago.

 

This was typified by his hunting down, and catching, of the opposition winger in his own 10 metre area in the 74^th minute of the match.”

 

 

T:         Kilroy, Feather, Flanagan, Armitage

G:        Helliwell 2, Johnson (R.)

 

T:         Hull, McGilvray, Wheeler, Johnson (P.), Dixon, Magennis

G:        Tyrer (3)

 

Bradford: Keith Shackleton; Vinnie Finnigan, Eddie Kilroy, Richard Johnson, Ben Naylor; Luke Helliwell, Jon Horton; Chris Feather, Keil Carlyle, Steve Crossley, Matt Cook, Dominic Dee, Jode Sherriffe.

Subs: Elliott Whitehead, George Flanagan, Jamie Shepherd, Nathan Armitage.

 

St. Helens: Kyle Eastmond; Dave Hull, Steven Tyrer, Jamie Foster, Dean McGilvray; Gary Wheeler, Matty Smith; Paul Leyland, Danny Fairhurst, Sam Thompson, Chris Dean, Paul Johnson, Kurt Haggerty.

Subs. Andrew Dixon, Sean Magennis, Liam Bland, Jake Emmitt.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Rugby Leaguer & League Express for the pictures.