The Shaymen came into this midweek tie knowing that only a win would do for Billy Heath and his side after a run of ten games without a victory. The rot was ended as Matty Kosylo and Richard Peniket put the Lancashire side to the sword and deservedly took all three points at The MBi Shay.
The winless run stretched back to mid-November when the last league victory came at The Shay against a side who are also sitting in the play-offs – Kidderminster Harriers. Peniket was delighted with the lads tonight but was disappointed that illusive win didn’t have sooner…
“We needed that tonight, I thought it was a much better performance form ourselves. I thought we was at them from the off and we deserved the win. We would have liked to have won a bit sooner going ten games without a victory but we’re delighted tonight, and hopefully this is a kick-start to our season.”
Richard knows full well that coming into the match only a win would have done for The Shaymen, with the side being up against such tough opposition in Chorley…
“Them being in the play-off places as well, it’s almost like a six pointer and it shows what we can do as a team, it shows the togetherness we’ve got to come back from that disappointing defeat on Saturday and bounce back within three days.”
Billy dropped Tom Denton for the first time since the FA Cup fourth qualifying round in mid-October, allowing Peniket more freedom up front. The forward did what all forwards are expected to do and scored coMBining up well with his fellow attackers in Adam Morgan and Matty Kosylo, scoring his first goal since the 3-3 draw at Eastleigh back in December…
“It’s no secret that I want to be a centre forward, I want to play up front and I got the chance tonight so hopefully I did myself justice.”
The manager made tactical changes tonight to combat The Magpies, starting with three in the heart of defence and two wing-backs. Billy got his tactics absolutely spot on and allowed his side to play with freedom, but also sure things up at the back…
“I thought it worked really well the first half, I didn’t think they really knew how to handle us to be honest. We got the two goal lead and that gave us a bit of security but obviously them getting one back made it a bit nervy towards the end but I’m pleased we saw it out.”
When teams go on an alarming run rumours spread like wildfire and one of those tends to be whether the manager ‘has lost the dressing room’. There is no instance of this in Halifax’s case with Peniket and the boys sticking together as a unit no matter what…
“We’ve got characters all through this team, I don’t fear that for one minute that we haven’t got characters throughout the team so it was only a matter of time before we started winning again and there’s no lack of heart in that dressing room, it’s just we needed to start getting the confidence up and putting results together.”
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