‘We weren’t great,’ says Wild as Town edge through
FC HALIFAX Town boss Pete Wild said he didn’t think his side were great in their penalty shoot-out victory over Hartlepool United in the FA Trophy
The Shaymen went through 4-2 on penalties after a 3-3 draw in normal time.
“I thought for 25 minutes we were ‘wow’, we ran all over them, we pushed all over them, we implemented the game plan exactly how I wanted to play,” Wild said. “Sometimes when you go 2-0 up too early, people can start doing things they wouldn’t normally do. And I thought that’s what led to the first penalty. We played too long, we’ve not held the ball up, and before you know it it’s in our box and it’s handball. That frustrated me, that our levels dropped. I didn’t think we were anywhere near where we should be. And then second-half I thought we just didn’t get going. So for large parts of the game I didn’t think we were great.”
Luke Summerfield’s penalty and Gevaro Nepomuceno’s blasted finish from inside the box capped an excellent first 15 minutes from Halifax.
Luke Williams halved the deficit with a first-half penalty, and then after Jeff King was sent-off for handball, Nicky Featherstone also scored from the spot to bring The Pools level.
Debutant Billy Chadwick produced a terrific low drive to put the ten-men in-front, but substitute Gavin Holahan equalised for Hartlepool with a great finish across goal.
Jack Senior, Summerfield, Niall Maher and Chadwick then scored in the shoot-out, with Hartlepool missing twice.
Halifax: Johnson, Byrne, Maher, King, Senior, Summerfield, Woods (Green 78), Earing, Nepomuceno (Williams 69), Chadwick, Bell (Allen 61). Subs not used: Davison-Hale, Bradbury, Tear, Tear, Danns.
Scorers: Summerfield (11), Nepomuceno (14), Chadwick (74)
Shots on target: 5; Shots off target: 11
Corners: 2
Hartlepool: Ravas, Cass, Johnson, Magloire, Parkhouse (Holohan 65), Macdonald (Grey 60), Donaldson, Williams (Featherstone 46), Crawford, Armstrong, Bunney. Subs not used: Killip, Oates, Odusina, Bloomfield.
Scorers: Williams (27), Featherstone Holohan (78)
Shots on target: 7; Shots off target: 2
Corners: 3
Referee: Steven Copeland
Town man of the match: Jack Earing
ONLINE: www.halifaxcourier. co.uk
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