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Photos: Adam Green
In the late kick-off today, Halifax 1sts put in a commanding performance against a weak Alcuin 3rds to put their loss against James 2nds firmly behind them.
They took the game by the scruff of the neck early on playing with style and direction from the start. It took just five minutes for them to take the lead, with captain Jack Beadle taking advantage of hesitant Alcuin defending to jink between two and finish coolly.
Halifax pushed for another and the Rory Delap-esque throws of their forward Denham caused problems for the Alcuin backline. They twice wasted chances from said throws before Denham with his boot this time, doubled their lead. His piledriver from the edge of the box was palmed helplessly by keeper Thurloway and nestled in the net.
However, celebrations were mute as in the build-up captain Beadle had been felled by a heavy challenge and had not got up. He was helped off the pitch and Halifax will be hopeful he gets the all clear to play in their remaining games.
However, even without their skipper Halifax continued the onslaught and two minutes later it was three, left winger Reagan was fed through and he made no mistake with the finish.
From this point I and everyone else watching were expecting a cricket score, but commendably Alcuin never let their heads drop. They were physical in their challenges and applied maximum effort to combat their lacking ability and were rewarded with a goal just before half time.
A livewire in their ranks Ben Bugeja opportunistically fired a spectacular volley from twenty-five yards that looked destined for the top corner, but the superb agility of ‘Fax’ keeper Jonny Sim was equal to it.
From the resulting corner, Halifax couldn’t clear and Alcuin’s Burge poached a goal. The sheer elation on every Alcuin players faces was heart-warming on a cold day.
Could there be a comeback? Could the impossible become possible? No. Halifax poured forward in the second half with a fire in their eyes, they were determined to destroy Alcuin and prove themselves as contenders for the title. By the end of the half they had scored three more and came close on several other occasions.
The first of the half came from a right wing cross from the substitute Reid that was steered in by Ash Daly. It was no more than he deserved; he was composed and accurate throughout.
They were now on the home-straight and the tactical decision to move Mawdesley from defence to midfield galvanised the team. He got a goal when Dan Jones played keepy-uppy in the box before laying off Mawdesley to volley home.
The result now a formality, Halifax were hungry for more and the once resilient Alcuin team had tired. Jones put the icing on the cake when he headed in from Thurloway’s parry of Tom Day’s effort.
This is a return to form from one of the pre-tournament favourites, and injured captain Beadle said, “It was a good performance moving on from last week, and we will try to take the confidence gained into the rest of the tournament.”
Vision MOTM: Ash Daly
I think this is very biased journalism of course Halifax were going to win they are all uni team players and most of alcuin 3rds are freshers, but to say ‘combat their lacking ability’ is unjust, especially seeing as you have stated one of their players as a ‘livewire’ and said ‘spectacular volley’!
I agree we were outclassed in almost every position but we caused trouble at several occasions against a fantastic Halifax side who will progress very far if not win the competition, but not enough emphasis is put on the fact that we were a vastly weeker side who held their own in parts and who scored and created some chances which you deemed as spectacular.
On the whole Halifax obviously deserved the victory but it was quite as easy as this article suggests, good luck Halifax on the rest of your college cup