The Shaymen made hard work of rock-bottom side Altrincham, with the only goal of the game coming in the last ten minutes, when Liam King fired one in the bottom corner from the edge of the area. It could have all so different for Billy Heath’s side when the home side were awarded a penalty in the first-half. Alty’s failure to convert from the penalty spot cost them valuable points, with Sam Johnson making one of the easier penalty saves he’ll make during his career.
We spoke to Matty Brown on Shayman Player HD and he was delighted to come away with three points on his return to the side…
“Very good, obviously the three points are the main thing. We didn’t play that great today. It was tough conditions and we had quite a lot of chances first-half which we didn’t put away. I think the lad’s heads were down a little at half-time, the gaffer wanted more from us. I don’t think we really delivered second-half either, we were miles of it but the more important thing is that we come away with three points.”
It has been eight long months since Matty put on a Halifax Town shirt (the first time since the Wembley victory in May in fact). He is delighted to be back in the side and playing football, once again reiterating the importance of the three points in the promotion race…
“The clean sheet’s good but on a personal level it’s good to play my first game because it’s been a long eight months, it makes all the hard work a rehabilitation work in the gym worth it when you put the shirt back on and get the three points in front of our fans.”
Despite Altrincham being rock-bottom of the table and 18 points off safety they gave The Shaymen a really good game today, with King’s strike separating the two sides. Matty was full of praise for the Greater Manchester side but also the togetherness of the Halifax side…
“It was because Alty are a good team, I know they’re bottom of the table and they’ve only got nine points but they’ve got a lot of experience in this team. They have got good players, it’s a tough one because they’re down at the bottom of the table and your mentality can change because you think you’ll be coming into an easy game. Not saying that’s what we were thinking. It was a tough game that Alty gave us, we kept on going. We’ve got a great team spirit, things weren’t going right for us but King came up with that winner at the end and it makes it a really good Saturday.”
The home side were awarded a penalty in the first-half when Brown pulled down Andy Owens in the box. Captain Jake Moult stepped up for Alty but his poor penalty was saved by Johnson. Brown came out and admitted it was a penalty, but the defender was shocked that he didn’t see red for the challenge on Owens…
“It was penalty yeah, I can’t complain. I’ve won the first one and then its ricocheted back and I’ve pulled him. I was expecting to get sent off as well but maybe I deserve a little bit of good luck over the past few months. It was a penalty and Sam’s got me out of trouble.”
Watch the full interview on Shaymen Player HD right now.
FC Halifax Town welcome Nuneaton Town on Saturday 11th February, with kick off scheduled for 3:00pm.
You can catch all the build-up and live match commentary on Shaymen Player HD from 2:45pm, as well as full match updates on the Shaymen Wall and our official Twitter feed @FCHTOnline.
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