After the 2-1 defeat away at Chester last night, the FC Halifax Town manager, Neil Aspin admitted his frustration at the way his team lost the game and brandished the referee’s decision to send off Josh Wilson in the first half ‘one of the worst red cards I’ve ever seen’.
Last night’s defeat means Aspin’s men have only won once on the road this season and he said: “I’m obviously frustrated and very disappointed, the players have put in a lot of effort with 10 men and got us back into the game and it’s a diabolic goal to concede and just spoils all the hard work the players have done. I’ve said what I needed to say to the players and I’m disappointed for the supporters that have come but we have to look to the next game. We can’t dwell on it, it’s a kick in the teeth and probably feels as bad as any game we’ve lost this season but if you concede goals like that it’s going to happen.”
The game was 0-0 at the break with the only real incident of the first half being the dismissal of Wilson and the boss was not happy with the decision: “I’ve just said to the referee if that’s deemed as a dangerous tackle then we all better pack up and stop playing football. I was only a few yards away from the incident and its one of the worst red cards I’ve ever seen, I can’t believe you can get sent off for that challenge. I realise the games changed over the years but that was just ridiculous.
It wasn’t a great game, it was a scrappy game but I think we showed with 10 men that we could do well so with an extra man in that second half, I would have definitely expected us to go on and get something from the game. The 10 men did well, we changed the shape, we went to three at the back so we could still push forward a bit and we were rewarded with the equaliser but I’ve only seen the second goal once and it just looked like so many errors packed into one goal. It’s ended up Matty Glennon and James Bolton leaving it for each other and neither dealing with it and their player has nipped in and scored, and it’s really disappointing but we’ve got to bounce back and do what we have done all season and turn it around at home.
“James, I don’t know what it is, he just seems to have a knack of scoring goals but then he is going to be disappointed with the winning goal, so all his glory has been taken away really. It’s nice for him to get on the score sheet; it’s just a shame about the winning goal.
“The two goals we have conceded could have both been prevented and if we are going to get points away from home we have to defend better. We have defended worse away from home this season but still, I think we have had one clean sheet in the last 11 games and it’s not good enough, you need clean sheets and especially tonight when we weren’t at our best going forward; we still always come up with a goal from somewhere, our deliveries from free kicks and corners weren’t the best tonight but I still always fancy us to get a goal from somewhere.”
Simon Lenighan, who recently signed for the Shaymen on loan from Leeds, made his debut last and Aspin gave his thoughts on the 19 year-olds performance and the strength he had available to him on the bench last night.
Neil said: “It’s difficult to get to the pace of the game but I wanted to have a look at Simon and that’s the only way you can test really. Obviously with the sending off I changed the shape of the team but I was probably looking to change the team at half time anyway even if we had 11 men. He is someone who is still learning the game, still a young lad, physically and athletically he is fine but probably a lack of games means it’s difficult to come but I wanted to have a look at him but he went off at half time when the game was 0-0 so I’m not attaching any blame on Simon for the defeat tonight.
“We’ve got some good players, when you can bring players off the bench like that they can change the game and Adam (Smith), I’ve spoken to him, he has been fantastic in the home games but struggled away. If he could replicate his home form away then what a player he would be for us, but he needs to have a look at his game and work out what it is that is holding him back away from home. We all have to improve away from home, including me as manager, we need to do something different to try and get a result away from home but we certainly should have got a draw tonight.
It wasn’t the best of games quality wise but yeah I suppose it was a bit of drama for the tv audience at the end but that’s two games now, three sending’s off, I had a great view of the incident and I am just amazed he got sent off, were getting so many sending’s off this season for petty things and you know if we were a dirty team you deserve to get sending’s off and you hold your hands up but I don’t think that’s the case. I think we should try and appeal it, obviously I need to speak to the chairmen first but at the end of the day the ref has to admit he has made a mistake, it doesn’t matter what I think it’s what he thinks.”
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