The Shaymen went down 1-0 to relegation haunted Stalybridge Celtic, however It could have been all so different for Billy Heath’s side if Adam Morgan converted the penalty and Daniel Hone didn’t see red in the second half. Chris Baguley condemned The Shaymen to another defeat with only a minute left to play, leaving it too late for the boys to get back into the game.
Billy’s side dominated Celtic throughout, even when Hone was given his marching orders midway through the second half. The referee had some big decisions to make and in the gaffer’s opinion they were wrong and influenced the outcome of the match…
“Yeah, we did, we dominated for probably 80% of the game. Some big key moments in the game, when you’re struggling it can sometimes happen and we had the penalty opportunity and didn’t take it. We had Kosylo who got hit off the ball and the referee doesn’t bother, that’s three game where things could have been so different and then the referee seems Danny Hone as a sending off. That’s questionable but we’re so disappointed and once again we come away with nothing.”
In the first half, The Shaymen had ten shots at Stalybridge’s goal with nothing to show for it. Despite Morgan’s four goals in two against Darlington he couldn’t find the net despite The Shaymen showing complete dominance even when they were down to ten, but it was poor defending that led to Celtic’s winning goal late on…
“It’s that clinical edge in front of goal, the players are a little bit edgy. We were in total control of the game; they were quite happy with a point even when we went down to ten men there was only us really forcing the issue. Once again, we don’t defend properly, the goal was poor and we don’t defend it properly.”
The missed penalty from the former Liverpool man was a huge moment in the match and had a massive impact on the final score line. Billy believes that when these chances come out you have to take them, unfortunately Halifax didn’t today and they were made to pay for it…
“Obviously, Morgan was going to take it, Kosylo had a very good game and was one of our more important players but Morgan is in-form and that happens. You’ve got to score penalties, we know that Stalybridge are struggling but they’ve only been getting beat by the one goal and it’s a difficult place to come. When big opportunities are delivered, you’ve got to take them.”
Eyebrows were arguably raised when Morgan was taken off after Hone’s sending off. Billy knows it was a difficult decision but he needed Tom Denton on the pitch to combat Liam Dickinson…
“It was a difficult decision, Morgan might get you a goal but at the end of the day you have to choose and the problem we had was that we have to keep Denton on the pitch to defend the set pieces. We always knew Dickinson was going to come on at some point in the game. Morgan is not the type of player to play up top on his own anyway, he’s play off a striker.”
The Shaymen had several shots throughout the game but they just couldn’t find the target, and in Billy’s eyes clean sheets are just as important as goals. If you get a clean sheet, then you get something from the match…
“We’ve definitely got goals but what we must do is to keep them out because we’ve had 18 shots on and off target so we’re having enough attempts but just got to make sure we keep clean sheets. If we came away with a point it wouldn’t have been ideal but at least we would have come away with something.”
Follow us on Twitter @FCHTOnline and check out all our pre-match build up on www.fcht.co.uk this week.
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