For the second week running Halifax Town produced a good performance bolted onto a positive result. The busy Heppenstall, who once again produced a display of character, technique and pace, breached the opposition defence after only 5 minutes playing a quick one two with Coulthard before skewing his shot wide from a good position inside the box. Stalybridge took the lead on 20 minutes when a diagonal pass from the left flank exposed poor positional play by the left wing back, Oldroyd, allowing the opposition player to get behind him into the box. Oldroyd half recovered but the opponent turned him and hit an early low shot to the near post leaving keeper Proctor stranded. Halifax responded in kind almost immediately with a short corner routine played out between Douglas and Coulthard allowing the latter to get a quality ball into the 'mixer' which Devlin gleefully despatched into the goal with a glancing header. Good passing between Coulthard and Heppenstall set Oldroyd up with a good chance and Heppenstall then put a free kick over the bar just before half time. Some ten minutes or so into the second half Oldroyd took the ball on the half way line and cut inside to make a determined run with the ball into the heart of the Stalybridge defence before being stopped, unlawfully according to the referee, inside their box. Douglas calmly tucked the penalty low into the corner of the net. The introduction of Billington into attack on 55 minutes gave the Halifax cause fresh impetus and for most of the remainder of the game Halifax probed the Stalybridge defence, mostly down the left flank, without being able to convert one of the several quality chances created.

Management Opinion - A good performance but greater things are still expected of this talented bunch in terms of control of the game, composure and carving out quality chances. None the less it would be unfair of us if we didn't relate the fact that we consider the players to be developing as a unit but we expect the players to benchmark this statement against the old adage that ' complacency and football do not make easy bed fellows'