HALIFAX CLAIMED a dominant 4-2 victory over Goodricke in dreadful wet and windy conditions to condemn the men in green to the drop. ‘Fax captain Garo Heath bagged himself a hat trick, taking Halifax up to third in the table with 12 points from 6 games.
The first half started with bright attacking play from Halifax, who dominated much of the possession but came up against a strong defensive display by Goodricke. The deadlock was soon broken when Halifax’s Oli Bull received a bloody injury to the head inside the box, leaving Heath to easily convert the penalty, with Chris Burrbeck coming on to replace the injured Bull.
Halifax continued their attack, making good use of the wings, and this paid dividends when, after attempting through ball, Halifax’s man was brought down inside the box. Heath converted again with the keeper only managing to gain a fingertip to the ball.
Goodricke maintained their strong defensive play, with the best chance coming from an attempted lob from Halifax’s no. 15 which just managed to stay out after hitting the post.
Goodricke managed to grow in strength as the game went on, pushing hard on the counter which led to a quality shot from the edge of the box drilled into the bottom corner by Connor Boyle, putting an end to the first half.
There was no slowing down once the second half started as Halifax continued their aggressive attacking play. However, it was Goodricke that managed to bag the first of the half with Billy Bruce capitalising on a slick through ball to make it two apiece.
After the switch around at half time Halifax were playing with the wind and managed to make use of this when they were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box. Charlie Dunning hammered the chance home to put them back in the lead.
Goodricke’s wing play shone through in the second half with Bruce causing Halifax problems, almost equalising with a tantalising low driven cross. Moments later Goodricke looked through after another good ball, but the referee made a very contentious offside call, leaving them with nothing to show from their good persistent wide play.
The last goal of the game came through a strong solo effort by Garo Heath, securing his hat trick with a well-placed shot from inside the box. Halifax managed to hold on to this lead for the rest of the game with some strong possessive play.
Halifax’s superior attack allowed them to finish on top but it wasn’t an easy win, Goodricke showed some strong defence and counter attacks but it was ultimately all in vain and they will be starting life in Division 1 next year. They should take heart from such a performance and will most certainly be in the running to gain promotion back to the Premier Division at the first time of asking.
Captain and hat trick hero Heath said of the game, ‘The first 30 and last 15 minutes were very good, we started well, looked very fluid and killed the game off effectively at the end. We do however keep getting complacent when we go ahead, and need to be a bit more ruthless especially going forward. Other than that I’m happy to get a third win in a row’
Goodricke skipper Aaron Sullivan was proud of his team’s performance: ‘I thought the lads put in a lot of effort and played extremely well in patches, however we gave away a soft second penalty which put us two down too early. The boys did great to come back from 2-0 down, showing great character for the college cup and the game against Alcuin next week’
Vision MotM: Garo Heath (Halifax)
Halifax 1sts: Coleman, Birtles, Bull , Goldthorpe, Chasteauneuf; Knifton-Smith, Collins, Tester, Dunning, Heath (c); Wearing. Subs: Durrbeck, Chadli.
Goodricke 1sts: Woolley, Thomas, Carmichael, Anderson, Duffin; Sullivan (c), Lewis, Boyle, Sides, Hurst, Courtney. Subs: Bruce, Tandy .