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Photos: Adam Green
On a hot summer’s day, two pieces of sublime individual skill from Kieran Hazell and Andy Doyle kept Langwith in the hunt for quarter final qualification.
Langwith 2nds captain Craig Burnell predicted a 2-1 scoreline before the game, and so it was to be in a must win game for both teams.
The match started untidily, with Halifax starting the better early on but with no real dominance. In the early stages goals seemed most likely to come from throw-ins with the powerful throws of Hamish Denham for Halifax and Will Prescott for Langwith causing real problems for the defences but no real sights of goal.
Despite this Halifax moved into the lead on the ten minute mark, Moyle played Meckin in on the right and his perfect cross was met powerfully by Denham to beat Cheshire in goal.
Halifax failed to build on this lead and set-pieces seemed the likeliest way for either team to score. Andy Doyle in his Langwith first team debut provided quality delivery from free kicks but no-one could make a telling connection. Truth be told it was a scrappy first thirty minutes and the crowd who had escaped revision hoped for a better second half.
It certainly had more action with Cheshire saving well from Halifax’s Moyle in the early stages. Halifax again threatened when substitute Jake Mundy rifled a shot against the crossbar from range.
Despite twice threatening Halifax were soon pegged back by a goal to savour from Kieran Hazell he met a flick on from forward James Macdonald with a pinpoint volley into the left hand corner. It was a sublime finish and well deserved, with Hazell enterprising throughout.
This inspired the Langwith team and they looked the most likely to double their lead. They came within a whisker when the rising Andy Doyle crashed a header against the crossbar from a Luke Gardener corner, but Langwith and Doyle were not to be denied.
When Matthew Jones was fouled twenty yards out it was Doyle who placed the ball down. Halifax decided not to build a proper wall but there was still a lot to do for Doyle, and he nailed it, curling the ball into the top left hand corner with precision even Beckham would be proud of.
The sizeable and vocal Langwith crowd erupted and rushed to join their team in thecelebrations. Halifax pushed for an equaliser but Langwith were in the ascendency and from this point the result was never in doubt.
It was a gritty win for Langwith and captain Andy Hutt was already looking forward to the next games after the match: “I’m delighted we dug in and got the 3 points, our competition starts now and we have to build on this win. We turned a slow first fifteen minutes around and finished well.”
Halifax captain Dean Hanson said: “Obviously very disappointed, played well at the start then let them back in it and we were sloppy. We have to perform well against Vanbrugh and hope Langwith slip up.”
Vision MOTM: Andy Doyle
Brilliant performance. Glad to see Doyle make such a good start to his Langwith career