[visiongallery set=72157629988134579]
Photos: Tom Wooldridge
The college cup got underway today with a 2-1 victory for Halifax 3rds over Wentworth 1sts, as two late goals saw Halifax surge back and claim the points.
The first match of the group stages was played in front of a decent crowd, with the postgraduate college Wentworth starting strongly. Halifax’s Shin Murata was the busier of the two keepers in the early stages, and John Lord put in one crucial block.
At the other end, Wentworth centre half Duncan Burns was dominating the aerial battle, and apart from attempts from Joe Knott and Solomon Sango, there was little threat to Colin Hill’s goal.
As the game progressed, Halifax began to dominate possession, and started to carve out chances, with an effort from Luke Stevenson well blocked, and long range efforts from Jonny Williamson and Paulo Dicaro fizzing narrowly wide.
After 23 minutes though Wentworth opened the scoring against the run of play, as a long ball was flicked on by Dan Green into the path of Andrea Marcheggiano, who slotted home calmly past Murata.
A dangerous cross by Sean Cole from the right though only narrowly evaded a Halifax head, as they searched for an instant response. Halifax were dominating, but Wentworth almost doubled their lead just before half-time, as they had a goal disallowed for offside, after a scramble in the Halifax area. At half-time Wentworth slightly fortuitously led 1-0.
Wentworth continued to be dangerous when attacking in the second half, with Tom Redhead impressing, but Halifax generally controlled possession. A free kick was deflected narrowly over the Halifax bar, whilst substitute Ben Smith fired inches wide for Halifax.
Halifax played some good passing football, moving the ball around nicely, but were constantly thwarted by Burns and his fellow centre-half Carl Hodgson.
Green was posing an aerial threat for Wentworth, who tried to run time down as the closing stages dawned. However into the last ten minutes, Halifax deservedly equalised after a shot by Ricardo was cruelly deflected past Hill.
Halifax sensed they could win the game, and they had a golden chance, when they were awarded a fortunate penalty for what appeared a clean tackle by Murray on Williamson. Williamson then stepped up and coolly slotted the penalty home, to complete the turnaround.
Halifax survived the closing minutes without any drama, to claim a deserved 2-1 victory over Wentworth. Halifax captain Andrew Wallace had mixed feelings regarding the contest, “I’m pleased with the result but not the performance, we were average at times, and have played better before”.
After the game Wentworth skipper Wayne Paes commented, “We’re disappointed but credit to Halifax who played well. We’re a bit aggrieved with some of the refereeing decisions, but we’ll pick ourselves up and bounce back.”
Vision MOTM: Duncan Burns