By Alex Finnis
Injured Halifax captain Tom Ragan was left praising the strength in depth of his squad as they ran out comfortable 4-0 winners on 22 acres on Sunday.
The opening minutes were a scrappy affair, the ball often being caught up in the middle of the park and attacking opportunities being wasted by slight errors, but then Halifax managed to add a greatly needed touch of class to the game as Gio Pilides flighted a beautiful ball across to Conor Brennan on the right, whose cross-cum-shot from the edge of the area looped over the head of James goalkeeper Sam Clitheroe and nestled in the corner of the net to make it 1-0.
From this moment on Halifax began to take control of the game, playing the more attractive football and exerting pressure on the James defence. The combination of Alex Simon and Anton Ellis down the left looked especially dangerous and it seemed inevitable that the second goal should come from this side of the pitch, but before it came, James were not without chances to get themselves back into the game. Striker Josh Brownlow broke away from the Halifax defence only to have his initial shot parried by Jake Mundy, then latching upon the rebound which was cleared of the line by a defender.
Not long after though Halifax did get their second, and it came by means of a corner. Sam Clitheroe’s punch fell right to the feet of grateful left-back Alex Simon on the edge of the area, who struck a delightful low volley into the bottom left hand corner to take his side into half-time at 2-0 up.
The second half was once again dominated by Halifax, the tight defensive unit of Mark Lund, Harry Pearson, Alex Simon and Tom Patrickson proving far too resolute to grant the opposition with any kind of chance for redemption. Halifax midfielder Ash Daly had several opportunities to add to his side’s goal tally, the first of which coming from a beautifully worked move down the centre of the pitch, but the third goal in fact came in a much uglier manner. The impressive Connor Brennan surged into James’ penalty area before being rashly brought down by goalkeeper Clitheroe. Clitheroe could not argue with the decision and Brennan himself stepped up to send him the wrong way from the spot for his second and Halifax’s third.
Throughout the half there was never really a moment at which you doubted the ability of Halifax to score more; they had James brutally penned back in their own half for the majority of the time, and did not present them with one clear-cut opportunity to score themselves. James’ only glimmer of hope came when their captain Richard Baxter produced a deft but ambitious lob from long range which was tipped acrobatically over the bar by a fully-stretched Jake Mundy.
Both Connor Brennan and Elliott Ragan had chances to round off the scoring for Halifax, but in the end the fourth goal came through substitute Matt Mawdesley, as he got his foot to a curled cross from the right hand side and put past Clitheroe to further emphasise the dominance of this depleted Halifax side, a side which, after such an impressive performance, can perhaps find it in them to continue playing in such a manner and push their way further up the table.