Gleeson pounces as fluke rebound breaks London

St Helens 22 London 1

Saints finalLY celebrated securing their coach, Ian Millward, on an extended contract and the return of Sean Long after injury with a hard-fought win, but only thanks to a bizarre turning point.

Millward, targeted last week by the Sydney club Wests-Tigers, signed on for another five years and hinted that he might stay as long in the job as Sir Alex Ferguson in his. "If you are happy why not continue?'' he asked.

Long played his first game for 10 weeks after recovering from a wrist reconstruction and his ring-rust was a factor in Saints' problems – problems which were only solved by a fluke when a Tommy Martyn kick-off rebounded from Neil Budworth's head.

That gave Saints a bonus possession after they had just fallen behind and, with the London defence slow to regroup, Martin Gleeson scored later in the same set of tackles.

Two minutes later, Saints' man of the match, Paul Sculthorpe, so impressive despite his trip to the other side of the world with Great Britain, broke through on the right for Darren Albert to score and they were on their way to their ninth victory in a row, even if it was not as convincing as some.

Despite a wealth of possession, Saints struggled in the first half with a robust London defence forcing a series of errors. Their only real try-scoring chance went to waste when Mat Toshack beat Martyn to force a charge-down dead.

London's tackling had been exemplary, but they hardly figured as an attacking force until Dennis Moran read Sculthorpe's pass perfectly to intercept and find himself so far in the clear that he could walk to the try-line, with Tony Martin's goal completing an unlikely half-time scoreline.

Paul Newlove's run, Barry Ward's pass out of the tackle and Chris Joynt's low drive for the line produced the equalising try, but Saints were still lacking any kind of composure.

They would have gone behind again if Martin had not hit the post with a simple penalty. He succeeded with one from much further out, but Budworth's inadvertent intervention had still to come.

"It was a massive turning point," Tony Rea, the Bronco's coach, said. "It took a bit of luck to break us down, playing against a quality team on their own ground."

After their two quick tries, Saints claimed another contentious one when Martyn followed up a skidding kick through, but Michael Gillette's effort kept London's interest alive.

St Helens: Stewart; Alberts, Gleeson, Newlove, Hoppe; Martyn, Long; Britt, Higham, Shiels, Stankevitch, Joynt, Sculthorpe. Substitutes used: Ward, Bennett, Nickle, Gardner.

London: Sykes; Hall, Martin, Roy, Peters; Gillett, Moran; Bawden, Budworth, Shaw, Retchless, Pryce, Toshack. Substitutes used: Marshall, Stephenson, Dean.

Referee: K Kirkpatrick (Warrington).

* Michael Withers kicked a dramatically last-gasp drop goal as Super League leaders Bradford snatched a stunning 25-24 victory at the Boulevard last night. Toa Kohe-Love looked to have claimed a draw as he capped a brilliant Hull fight-back by completing his hat-trick of tries in the dying moments afters the Bulls ad led 24-10.