FC Halifax Town made it four wins from five games with a 1-0 victory over Alfreton Town on the same day that league leaders AFC Fylde went down to a shock 2-1 defeat to Stalybridge Celtic. Returning winger Josh MacDonald believes those results prove the league is still wide open.
Halifax are now only seven points behind The Coasters and are set to face them at home in their next fixture, meaning The Shaymen could cut that lead to just four points with three games left of the season, and MacDonald has faith in his side to keep the pressure up.
“You would have expected them to go to Stalybridge and get the win but the gaffer has always said it is right there for us until the end. So, they’ve gone there and got beat, hopefully when we take on Fylde on Friday we can beat them, grab three points and put even more pressure on them.”
The 22-year old hasn’t appeared for Billy Heath’s side since he come off the bench against Stockport County on the 28th of January only to aggravate a hamstring injury and while he is yet to get a full 90 minutes under his belt, Macdonald was just happy to get some playing time back.
“I wanted to get on and make an impact straight away so I thought I did ok. I only had about 20 mins in the locker but it was 20 minutes in the locker for me.”
He certainly did make an impact. Since the winger made his appearance in the second half he instantly injected some much-needed pace and flair to the game and was unlucky not to have grabbed a couple of assists.
After laying the ball off on two different occasions, one for Kevin Roberts and one for Liam King, both of which should have been scored MacDonald would have been right to feeling aggrieved. Yet he remained humble and insisted the win was all that mattered.
“There was the chance for Roberts and the one that I pulled back for King but we got the win and that’s all that matters.”
The goal came from a corner as Tom Denton nodded in at the near post following a Jordan Sinnott corner kick.
The delivery from the midfielder and the placement from the striker were both inch perfect and MacDonald said it was something the side worked on during training.
“If you put the ball where he wants it he will score goals. It was a great ball by Jordan Sinnott. We worked on that in training and it worked on the pitch so that was all good.”
This is an obvious benefit for Heath’s men as they usually possess and obvious height advantage over their opponents as MacDonald explains.
“To be fair we have got a very big squad compared to other people, so if you’ve got a dead ball specialist like Sinnott then it’s a bonus.”
You can watch FC Halifax Town’s next game against AFC Fylde on Friday the 14th of April, at the MBi Shay Stadium.
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