A young Cleator Moor Celtic side earned plaudits in defeat when they went down 4-2 at Pilkington in the North West Counties League.
Celtic had to sign on three players ahead of their trip to St Helens, and along with a couple promoted from the reserves, all did well.
Assistant manager Dene White said: “We were up against it before the game, and went 3-0 down, but after that had a real good go and it was a very pleasing effort.
“The game had been rearranged because when we went there last month it was abandoned when one of their players suffered a really bad injury.”
Pilkington moved into a play-off position with the win and had scored three goals in the first-half through Paul Watson, Marcus Giglio and Phil Marsh.
But Celtic played really well in the second-half and pulled one back after 48 minutes when Kieran Maguire latched onto a clearance on the edge of the home area and accurately lifted the ball back in over the keeper.
Although Andrew Presho scored a fourth for the hosts a few minutes later, Celtic more than matched them after that and had the final word with an excellent goal in the 85th minute.
Tom Houghton made a great run from deep and when he pulled back a cross Tom Mahone was there to hammer into the net.
“It was really pleasing to see how the lads responded from being 3-0 down at half-time and we won the second-half 2-1,” said White.
“We are still in a battle to avoid relegation and have a big game on Saturday at Atherton LR who are third bottom and in the last relegation place. We expect to have a few players back and will be able to take a strong side,” he added.
Celtic currently lie 12th five points better off than Atherton from the same number of games. Then bottom side St Helens have been confirmed as already relegated.
