AFTER a run of poor results in the Jolly's Combination League, Helston gave a much brighter performance against St Agnes to lift the gloom that had descended over Kellaway Park .

Having looked serious and runaway title contenders at the end of September, Helston's challenge has faltered alarmingly, but they gave themselves a faint hope of staying the course after an emphatic victory against last season's champions.

With Nigel Thwaites included in the line-up, Helston made a busy start as they probed for openings in the visiting defence.

It wasn't long before one appeared and after six minutes the Blues were in front. Karl Turner was fed with a perfect pass by Richie Wilkinson and after moving towards the left-hand side of the penalty area pulled the ball back for Aaron Collick to sidefoot the ball past the goalkeeper.

Minutes later Helston added a second goal when their pressure paid off. Again it was Collick who was at the heart of things when a cross was driven hard into the box for Collick to head the ball back across the face of the goal and over the head of stand-in Steve Kemp to score the second goal.

Despite being on the receiving end for much of the half, St Agnes always looked dangerous on the break and a tight check needed to be maintained on the forwards.

The Blues notched a third goal when Thwaites threaded a ball through to give Collick a great chance of scoring, but he was brought down by the 'keeper. Collick picked himself up and coolly slotted the spotkick into the net to complete his hat-trick.

Over indulgence with football at the back led to Helston's comfort zone being invaded by the visitors. Eventually a poor passback allowed Tom Benney to snap up the underhit pass and tuck the ball under Rob Hoare to score.

The goal was the lift the visitors were looking for and just before the break they almost snapped up a second when the Blues failed to clear a corner and, with Hoare beaten, Wilkinson coolly cleared the danger off the line.

St Agnes made a lively start to the second half and forced Hoare to make two fine saves, but ten minutes into the half Turner clipped a corner to the near post where a defender attempted to chest down the ball. Unfortunately for the defender the ball sat up perfectly for Neil Crook to pounce and hook the ball into the roof of the net from close range.

Thwaites and Turner's superiority in midfield put Helston well on top and they scored a fifth goal when Thwaites lifted the ball over Kemp for Turner to follow in and tap into an empty net.

Collick, after his first-half goalscoring heroics, had to take over as a makeshift defender when Ben Medlin was forced to go off with an injury, but the Blues remained solid at the back and still showed plenty of threat up front.

Helston made it a round half-dozen following a goalmouth scramble that eventually ended with Matt Fox completing the scoring.

Manager Alex McDonald was pleased with the result: "After the previous week this performance was very welcome," said McDonald. "We tried one or two different things and released the shackles a little bit in a bid to get them to enjoy their football, but whether that had anything to do with the result I don't know.

"We'll see what happens in the next few games. It will take a lot for us to catch Penryn, but we are one of the sides that can do it."

Helston: R Hoare, B Medlin, C Breasley, R Wilkinson, N Crook, G Blake, E Dunn, R Treloar, N Thwaites, K Turner, A Collick. Subs: S Allen, M Fox, S Hicks, G Davies, J Ludlum.