If all goes to plan, Halifax could be playing Droylsden twice next season, with this pre-season friendly perhaps just a pre-cursor to what may be a divisional fixture in 12 months' time.

It wasn't lacking too much of the bite usually associated with a league game either, as both sides competed well without producing too many moments to savour in what was the Shaymen's first home warm-up match ahead of the new campaign.

On an immaculate playing surface as yet unexposed to the rigours of weekly football, it was Droylsden who settled down the quickest, playing with greater fluency and controlling the lion's share of possession early on.

The Bloods had won their other two pre-season outings before today and it showed as Phil Doran saw a well hit low drive blocked by a perfectly timed Harry Winter tackle before full-back Liam Brownhill embarked on a mazy run but fired narrowly over.

Town responded to the away side's early pressure by producing some bright moments of their own as the first-half wore on. Nick Gray got the home crowd excited with a dazzling run after half-an-hour and picked out Jamie Vardy with a cross, but the forward failed to connect from six yards out.

Gray was making his first appearance of pre-season after sitting out the 5-0 victory at Brighouse Town, and he was involved again two minutes later after Winter won the ball in typically bullish style and left a muddy scar in the otherwise pristine pitch. Scott Metcalfe dug out a cross from the left to Gray at the far post but the winger nodded narrowly and agonisingly wide.

Both back fours dealt well with what opposing attacks there were, with both number fives, Liam Hogan and Nat Brown, defending resolutely when called upon.

Former Town favourite Lewis Killeen endured a quiet first 45 while his team-mates enjoyed a bright opening half.

The second period saw the usual glut of substitutions and a change of shape with Winter deployed in the hole behind Richard Marshall and Vardy switching to the left in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

It seemed to work as the home side began the second-half in the ascendancy, pushing the visitors further back but without creating anything of note. Much of the first-half liveliness has subsided, with productive football replaced by pounding tackles as bones were well and truly crunched.

15 minutes into the second 45, the match descended further into a pitch battle as the formerly lush green surface took even more of a mauling with both sides refusing to give an inch.

The tit-for-tat tackles were interrupted after 63 minutes when Scott Phelan charged down a Droylsden clearance and the ball looped over 'keeper Paul Phillip and rebounded off the bar. Phelan then sent Marshall through on goal but Phillip was quick off his line to block as any real chances to score dried up.

In the end, most of the players, like the pitch, were left with more than a few scars.

Halifax: Hedge (Senior 45), Hardy, Garner (Plummer 45), Winter (Garner 65), Bower (Riley 45), Hogan, Gray (Taylor 45), Baker, Holland (Marshall 45), Vardy, Metcalfe (Phelan 45).

Shots On Target:2, Shots Off Target:6, Corners:2

Droylsden: Phillip, Roche (Vaughan), Brownhill (Holden 27), Byron, Kerr, Barnes, Brown, Doran, Kilheemey, McNiven, Killeen. Subs Not Used: McGuirr, Vaughan, Holden, Cryan, Jackson, Smith, Booth, Ablett, Whalley, Sorvel

Shots On Target:5, Shots Off Target:3, Corners:3

Attendance: 646

Tom Scargill