It was a fine day for The Shaymen at The Lamb Ground with Billy’s side running riot against one of their promotion rivals. Braces from Richard Peniket, Matty Kosylo and Adam Morgan gave Halifax a resounding 6-2 victory, with Aaron Opoku and Andy Burns grabbing what turned out to be consolations for the hosts.
It took The Shaymen 20 minutes to get into the match when Peniket opened the scoring, but before that the lads were slow out of the blocks and the quick surface was probably to blame for that, but Billy was full of praise for his side despite this….
“I thought we played really well, we started a little bit slow in the opening five to ten minutes. It was probably just the surface, with Tamworth it being at home on their own pitch, they seemed to be a bit more used to it with how quick the ball was moving and we looked a little bit slow coming out of the blocks. Suddenly we got the goal and it changed everything, from the first goal we were fantastic, played some good stuff, moved the ball well and looked threatening every time we went forward. We soaked up pressure and then hit them on the break and got our just desserts.”
The three points were dampened by Peniket’s red card midway through the second half, and Billy was disappointed with the referee’s decision to give Peniket a straight red card. Despite this The Shaymen still managed to score an extra two goals at the Lamb Ground even though their heads could have dropped with a man down…
“You come to Tamworth who are in the play-off positions and looking to get promoted, you’re looking to win and get a result whatever means and whatever score line is irrelevant, you’re just looking to get a win. We’ve won convincingly, pleasing to score with ten men as well, I think that was fantastic. The disappointment is Peniket getting sent off which I thought was very harsh. I don’t think it was a sending off, I’ll have to look at that definitely.”
The Shaymen sunk the home side within five first half minutes as the three goal scorers stunned Andy Morrell’s side, which completely changed the complexity of the match and put the away side in control from that point onwards…
“They were the home team, they came out fast and were pushing. I think we got the goal and it seemed to shake them a little bit, put the skids on them and then we played some good stuff, the goals kept coming. As a team performance, it was very good and when we went down to ten we handled the situation very well.”
Braces from Kosylo, Peniket and Morgan made sure of the resounding victories but it was a fantastic team performance from goalkeeper all the way up to the forwards. Billy’s side played exceptionally well and the first-half performance is exactly how the manager wants his side to play…
“I thought all the players did very well, the three players got the goals so they’ll get the plaudits. I thought defensively we were very good, disappointed with the two goals, we were going to have some pressure when we went down to ten. They worked so hard and the first half performance was how we want to play, we pressed in little clusters and packs. We were sharp on the football and I don’t think anyone can say we didn’t deserve to win by that margin.”
David Lynch was substituted at half-time with Liam King his replacement. The former was having an excellent game before the forced substitution but King came in and filled the spot Lynch had left perfectly with Billy impressed with both men…
“He got kneed in his ribs. I thought Lynch was outstanding in the first half. He was playing really well; the injury gave King on opportunity to play and I thought he did very well. He looked sharper and fitter now, I thought the pair of them were brilliant.”
FC Halifax Town will host Salford City at the MBi Shay on Saturday 21st January, 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.
Read more posts by Kelly Gilchrist
;
