Boss: Major changes unlikely for Town trip
Halifax coach Richard Marshall has said he is likely to resist any temptation to ‘make wholesale changes’ ahead of Sunday’s Championship fixture at Workington (3.0). Fax head up the M6 on the back of their 26-6 loss at Sheffield, a game in which they squandered chance after chance before being hit with a four-score sucker punch early in the second half.
And while Marshall did not rule out some alterations to his selection, he hinted they would be limited.
“We’ve got some players who are probably under a bit of pressure and we’ve got players outside last week’s 17 who are pushing for places,” said Marshall.
“We’re not sure of the make up of the team yet, but there won’t be wholesale changes.
“We’ve reviewed the Sheffield game in detail and looked at the things we did to create - seven, eight, nine first half chances - but also the things that contributed to us not taking those chances.
“I think we need to improve the way we position our support players at times and our communication needs to be better, so people know what’s going on.
“The biggest area of concern was our defence in that 10 or 15 minute spell after half time and again we’ve looked at getting more players into contact this weekend.
“Workington are a lively side, and they’ve got some dangerous players, but I’d be disappointed if this team wasn’t capable of going up there and performing well.
“They’ll have targeted this game after two losses and they’ll challenge us.
“It looks like it is going to be wet, heavy conditions, and I think defensively we’ll be tested, which is what I want.”
Marshall has been buoyed by the return of full back Miles Greenwood to full fitness.
The player was due to make his first appearance since breaking his leg in two places a year ago in last night’s reserve game at Dewsbury.
Greenwood was joined in the side by Tommy Saxton, Connor Robinson and Andy Bracek.
“It’s great to have Miles back. He’s been out for a year, more or less, and that’s a long time to be away,” said Marshall.
“The players playing at Dewsbury all need game time and we’ll assess the situation from there.
“If we wanted to, we could pull players in out of that game, but it’s unlikely at this stage.
“We’ve got guys who were closer to last week’s 17 - Ross Divorty, Jake Eccleston - who are maybe a little bit nearer.”
There were one or two sulking players in the dressing room corridor at Derwent Park, Workington. It was a scenario which illustrated the downside of the dual registration system which had just been introduced.
A former Halifax player who was by this time at Town explained the situation.
“These lads have been training all week but have just been told that they aren’t involved today as a couple of players from Widnes have been drafted in this morning.”
Most games at Workington are hard work and this was no exception, Halifax winning 20-8 on Sunday 10th February 2013.
Town kicked a penalty in the last minute to gain a bonus point and celebrated as if they had won!
The team three years ago as per Andrew Hardcastle was Ryan Fieldhouse, Lee Paterson, Ben Heaton, Steve Tyrer, Rikki Sheriffe, Paul Handforth, Scott Murrell, Luke Ambler, Craig Ashall, Andy Bracek, Dane Manning, Ross Divorty and Adam Robinson.
The substitutes were Tony Tonks, Karl Ashall, Anthony Bowman and Callum Casey.
This was the one of the first games without Sean Penkywicz after the captain had moved to Leigh over the winter.
The decision had been made to move Craig Ashall up into the hooker spot from the backrow as replacement and younger brother Karl had arrived from Swinton as interchange for this position.