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Photos: Jack Western
Halifax 1sts cantered to a 3-0 victory today over Alcuin 2nds, despite not being at their best. Goals from Matt Darling, Alex Tringham and Matt Mawdesley saw them maintain their 100% start to Group One.
The game started in lively fashion, and it was far from all one way as might have been expected. Inside five minutes, Alcuin keeper Neil Lawrence was forced into a reaction save from Mawdesley’s shot.
Seconds later opposite number Jonny Sim also pulled out an impressive stop after George Brough’s shot on the counter attack.
Mawdesley was heavily involved in the action throughout, and in the seventh minute he found space on the right, Connor Meckin was unable to get a shot away after Mawdesley’s ball across the face of goal, and when the ball fell to Tom Day his shot was blasted wide.
On twelve minutes it was 1-0. Tom Armstrong was adjudged, perhaps harshly, to have brought down Ash Daly inside the box, and Darling made no mistake from the spot smashing his penalty just to the left of centre.
Still Alcuin threatened, Brough again the danger man, but he couldn’t quite get a shot away as Tringham got a toe on the ball after Ben Bugeja’s neat set-up.
Yet Halifax were a persistent threat, never really giving the Alcuin back line a quiet spell. Ben Rigby was dispossessed on the edge of the box by Connor McCoy who set up Mawdesley, but his shot from a narrow angle drifted past the far post.
On the stroke of half time Alcuin came close to levelling the scores. Bugeja’s corner found the head of Ben Carver, but his looping shot went over the bar, Sim in goal seemingly having it well covered.
Alcuin would have been content with the 1-0 half time scoreline. While Halifax were clearly the stronger team, it had not been all one-way traffic. The men in white, one of the favourites for the Cup, did not seem to be firing on all cylinders.
In the second half Alcuin were unable to provide the same forward threat as they had in the first, and Halifax will probably be disappointed not to have scored more. They had chances aplenty, but a mixture of wasteful shooting and good saves from Lawrence kept the score down.
It should have been 2-0 just after the interval. Meckin’s shot from inside the box went straight into the ground, took a typical JLD bounce and appeared bound for the top corner, but as Luke Stevenson made sure of the goal by nodding it in at the far post, the referee rightly blew up for offside.
Meanwhile Mawdesley continued to pepper the Alcuin goal with shots, including one which hit the inside of the post and span across the goal, but clearly did not cross the line.
Half way through the second period, though, Halifax finally put the game to bed with two quick goals. Firstly, Tringham found space about 25 yards from goal in the centre of the pitch and rifled a powerful shot inside the right-hand post, leaving Lawrence rooted to the spot.
Then two minutes later, Mawdesley finally found the net, after trying and failing all game. He was released inside left before curling a low shot inside the far post.
Shortly after it could have been four, but Lawrence pulled out the save of the day, showing terrific reactions to tip away another Mawdesley effort, this time from point-blank range, after Stevenson’s square ball.
From the resultant corner Tringham bundled the ball over the line for what appeared to be his second, but a foul on the keeper was called by the referee and it remained 3-0, which was the final score.
Alcuin still had some nice play in the second half but their goal threat had dissipated. Meanwhile Halifax, for the second week running, turned in a workmanlike performance, unlikely to scare their rivals for the Cup but doing the job in these potential banana-skin matches.
If only the author of this article himself, the Cat, was in goal! Easily would have kept a clean sheet.