This was a game we were expected to win easily. In the end Halifax turned out to be a tough nut to crack.

Although they came for the draw, their attack being non-existent, they have two fine defenders in the brothers Clarke.

Nothing got past these two towering lads and Bo hardly got a look in all night.

Halifax look too strong to go down on this showing, there are worse teams than them in this league.

Jan pulled his usual stunt before the start of the game. When the teams were announced, Richie Appleby was down to start, so much for being a few games away from recovery.

Colin Larkin also started the game, but after running rings around Halifax for the first 12 minutes he was taken off to be replaced by Ian Foster.

Foster soon made his mark in an hilarious mix up between keeper and defender.

Matt Clarke tried to pass the ball back to Richardson on the edge of the area but only succeeded in rolling it past him.
Fozzie eagerly pounced onto it and simply rolled it into the net.

The crowd expected the goal fest to start then but it never did because Halifax pulled up their socks and battened down the hatches.

Foster missed a chance to increase the lead six minutes later but he shot wide with the keeper beaten.

The half drifted to an end with the loss of Larkin being the biggest difference and Henriksen struggling to make any impression.

HT. 1-0

The second half was much as the first was. Our forwards trying in vain to get past the Halifax defence by passing the ball around when the more direct approach may have bought better dividends.

The visitors got their one and only shot on goal three minutes into the restart when Bushell forced Brockie into an excellent save but after that it was almost one way traffic.

The problem was the longer the game went on the more chance there was of throwing it all away and allowing Halifax to equalise.

Jan made two more changes in this half. First taking off Adie Smith and bringing on the disappointing Sam Shilton, will he still be here next season?

He then sent on Drewe Broughton in place of Bo in an effort to stop the dominance of the Clarkes.

It worked, at last we were finding room to put some moves together and the breakthrough came almost at the end when Scott Stamps was tumbled in the area and Foster sent Richardson the wrong way for the clincher.

To the Shaymens credit they still didn't give up.

One final word about the ref. Probably the most fussy official ever seen.

Every time either side had a throw in he wanted it moved a few inches along.

Every challenge, the whistle went.

The best one was when we were awarded a free kick and he refused to move the wall more than six feet away, yet when they had a free kick a few minutes later he made a point of pacing out the distance for the wall.

In the end, poor officials or not it was a welcome three points against a side that made it hard for us.

What more did we expect from them.

FT. 2-0