Danny Clarke may have gone to bed last night dreaming of a positive FC Halifax Town debut against Curzon Ashton on Saturday, but that wasn’t to be as his new side slumped to a 4-2 defeat to the Nash, with the home side seeing three of their players sent off.
The former North Ferriby skipper joined some of his ex-teammates only a few days ago, and came on at half-time to try get the Shaymen back into the game.
The new addition to the squad gave us his thoughts on the game after the final whistle…
“This is a hard place to come to. I’ve been here a few times now, they do like to play football, they’re a tough team, strong lads and they’re not a bad side. You need to be switched on from the start really and I think that’s where we went wrong today.”
Cliff Moyo’s diving header shortly after the second half began looked to be the start of a comeback for the visitors, but it wasn’t to be. Danny is disappointed that the team couldn’t build on from the goal…
“I came on, and as a substitute your job is to come on and make an impact. I think I received the ball on the edge of the box, played a one-two and I think we scored from the corner off that. So yeah, the lads were up and excited, maybe a bit too excited, maybe that’s why they scored the third goal hitting us on the counter. So, a bit naïve, but yeah, that was the main thing, I needed to make an impact. I managed to do that, but after that, it went a bit downhill really.”
The last ten minutes or so of the game were very tense for both sets of fans. Halifax needed to score two goals to take anything away from Tameside Stadium with plenty of players getting forward into the opposition box to try and meet the crossed ball. Danny believes the tactics seen in the dying stages needed to be mixed up to enhance the chances of a Halifax goal…
“We were very predictable. We didn’t try and cut them open, it was very one direction – getting the ball wide and putting it in. I think in hindsight; we could have tried play through more. But they did make it very difficult, they sat everyone behind the ball and even if we did sit off, maybe they wouldn’t have come out to us anyway. In hindsight, yeah, we could have tried a few different things, but we didn’t do enough today”
The newest member of the Shaymen squad is not the first to be brought in from Billy Heath’s former club North Ferriby United, who currently sit in 23rd in the National League. Clarke is happy to be playing alongside some familiar faces…
“Well, Dents is a key player. I know how he works; I tried reading a few of his flick-ons today. Obviously, getting back used to it is going to take me a couple of weeks. But yeah, they’re decent lads. At Wednesday training, I fit straight in and enjoyed that. Going forward, hopefully if I can get my place in the side we can do a bit more”
The Shaymen’s next game is against Matlock Town where they shall start their defence of the FA Trophy. Clarke is looking forward to the trip to Derbyshire…
“I’m cupped out for the FA Cup, so the FA Trophy is something I want to have a good go in. I’m not sure where the priorities will lie with the gaffer; I don’t know what team he’ll pick. I might get a chance in that, I’m not sure, but again it’ll be a difficult tie. We’ll be a big scout for them; they’ll be on it so we’ve got to be on it from the start.”
FC Halifax Town return to action against Matlock Town on Saturday with kick-off at 3pm.
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