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Photos: Jack Western
Halifax strolled to victory against a sorry Goodricke side. Seemingly able to score at will for the first time this season Halifax showed some of the form that took them to the College Cup Final last season.
There was no hint of what was to come as the match kicked off in beautifully autumnal conditions on 22 acres. The opening salvos were very evenly matched with both sides having a fairly equal level of possession and chances. In these early stages Goodricke actually appeared to have the best of the opening few minutes, looking very dangerous in attack and having a number of promising chances, Joe Mann had an early shot go just wide, and they followed this up a few minutes later with Gabriel Altiparmak crossing into Mann who scuffed his shot wide.
Almost immediately Halifax countered with incredible speed, with their defence in disarray Goodricke conceded a controversial penalty, which was coolly slotted home by Gio Pilides to make it 1-0. Halifax were quickly on the attack again showcasing their ability to create chances out of nothing. A beautifully timed and weighted pass from Connor McCoy beat the offside trap and connected sweetly with the boot of Dan Jones, who had little more than a tap in for the second.
From then on it was one way traffic as Halifax pushed home their advantage as Goodricke slipped into into a mire of disorganisation. Although they played some decent football, they were never able to join this together into any sort of decent play, lacking fluency and togetherness. Halifax were able to take advantage of this countering brutally and cutting through the Goodricke defence like a hot-knife through butter, with the brilliant McCoy often at the centre of these attacks. McCoy and fresher Garo Heath scored before half time to put the game before reach as a contest.
Goodricke did up there game after half time with substitute Chris Osborne in a cameo appearance having an immediate effect at steadying the ship. Yet any hopes of a comeback quickly ebbed away as Halifax continued to dominate, and it wasn’t long before they scored another brace through Jones and Heath. Goodricke hadn’t given up and their persistence showed through with captain Jonathan Gillbanks scoring a stunner to make it 6-1. However Heath quickly snuffed this out with his hat trick to make it seven.
The game then seemed to settle into a dull equilibrium for the final period with very little of note occurring. However the return of Joe Mann to the field in the final period livened things up somewhat with Ben Watkins scoring to make it 7-2, before Halifax struck back to make it 8.
Goodricke captain Gillbanks was disappointed with his sides performance “it was not a good performance at all. We were very poor in the first half, conceding some simple goals. We improved in the second half with Osborne shoring it up, but overall we were not good enough.”
In contrast his opposite number McCoy was delighted with his sides performance “I’m really pleased, it was much better than last week, it was comfortable. Overall it was a very positive performance.”
MOTM- Garo Heath