Halifax bow out with a whimper after dour defeat to Halesowen
FC HALIFAX Town fans may have to settle for just the one trip to Wembley this season.
The Shaymen were a shadow of the side that has risen to third in the National League as they exited the FA Trophy with barely a whimper, losing 1-0 to Halesowen.
Town’s rousing league form of late made their desperately poor display here all the more inexplicable; Halesowen were
The Shaymen were too ponderous, lacking aggression and intensity
an honest, hard-working outfit, but a performance anywhere near the ones in victories over Maidenhead, Dover and Bromley would surely have seen Pete Wild’s team progress.
A day earlier, Wild had been crowned National League manager of the month, and appeared to have sent his team out with the intensity and attacking intent he wanted as Jeff King, Josh Staunton and Jack Redshaw all had decent chances inside the opening 10 minutes.
But things fell apart after that, as errors began to creep into Halifax’s play and Halesowen grew into the contest.
Robbie Bunn’s shot was saved by Sam Johnson after a misoplaced pass by Cameron King, and James Bowen hit the sidenetting following a superb onetwo with striker Montel Gibson.
There was no discernable difference after the restart, so when Jamie Molyneux smartly finished Robert Evans’ incisive through ball a few minutes after the interval, Town looked in trouble.
The Shaymen were too ponderous, lacking aggression and intensity, and made very hard work of getting back into the game.
Halesowen’s time-wasting tactics didn’t help, and neither did the bobbly surface, but substitute Tobi Sho-Silva should have done better than mis-kick his shot well wide when the ball fell to him near the corner of the six-yard box.
Wild’s and the crowd’s frustrations over Halesowen’s timewasting then reached boiling point when Evans launched into a dreadful lunge on Michael
Duckworth on halfway, and was only punished with a booking, and resulting in the Town man to hobble off.
Nathan Clarke headed a corner just wide with five minutes to go, moments before Montel Gibson squandered a chance for Halesowen when his low shot from the left of the box was saved by Johnson.
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