Halifax opened the scoring after 5 minutes with another well worked goal. Sheriffe fed Kennedy who in turn fed Heppenstall before the latter skipped around the penultimate line of defence and then placed it past the advancing goalkeeper. Further half chances fell to Heppenstall [twice], Billington and Douglas with FC United responding with a shot over the bar from inside the box after slack marking from the Halifax players at a throw in. On some 30 minutes Devlin played a super 40 yard diagonal pass out to Sheriffe but the latter lost possession inside their box and from the resulting phase of play by the opposition Evans found himself having to play on the turn to deal with a ball knocked over the top. Evans got to the ball first but slipped on a very muddy surface and the FC United player coolly placed the ball past Proctor. Halifax created a number of good scoring opportunities in the second half as a result of varied passages of play. Sheriffe outpaced his defender to get into the box on 2 or 3 occasions but failed to get his shot away, Holt delivered 3 or 4 quality free kicks into the box with nobody managing to engage with a clean, accurate connection, Heppenstall hit the post with a penalty, put a free kick over the bar and had a one on one with the keeper which hit the latter's outstretched leg and Holt had a goal disallowed for hand ball after good wing play and crossing by Douglas. Meanwhile FC United tried to counter with early balls knocked over the top and from one of these the 'sleeping' Town defenders were caught out and FC United pulled off a win from a position where Halifax had dominated possession and creation of goal scoring

Opportunities. [Probably 65% in favour of Halifax]. Credit has to go to FC United for maintaining their belief in a match which, at times, threatened to turn into an onslaught for Halifax. FC United remain at the top of the table as a result of this win.

Management Opinion - In many respects this was a good performance and many of the boxes received a tick. Regrettably we did not tick the boxes marked 'basic defending', 'defending as a unit comprising the back 4 and goalkeeper ' or 'clinical finishing'. There is no box entitled 'remembering to grab the 3 points when you are substantially outplaying the opposition'. A good job - because if there was that would not have received a tick either. If this wasn't such a result orientated industry we might find this forgetfulness by our players rather amusing.

Team: Josh Proctor. Antonio Kennedy. Fabian Evans. Mathew Devlin. Andy Spratt. Luke Oldroyd. Lee Coulthard. Dene Heppenstall. Jamie Douglas. Jess-Jo Sheriffe. Craig Billington.

Subs. Jameel Nawaz. Dave Wilson. Robert Cook. Sam Holt [for Kennedy 35 mins]. Paul Hague [for Oldroyd 65 mins].

Scorer - Heppenstall.

Goal Assist - Kennedy.

HTAFC MoM - Billington/Heppenstall

Goal Chances - HTAFC 24

- FCU 12

Other Results :

Stalybridge Celtic Whites 0 Garforth Town 2

League Table :

By Nick Fletcher