Down to the bare bones for the second week running and with an away trip to current IFA champions Preston was always going to be difficult but AFC Halifax, despite losing 9-1, came away with some well-deserved credit and will “Live to Tell” the tale.
Manager John Barker told his team to “Express Yourself” but at the same time “Keep it Together” as debutants Roland Kankieza & David Banks came into the squad. But all the prematch talk went out of the window after just “4 Minutes” when Preston took the lead following a Barker mis-kick which left the opposing striker clean through on goal and he neatly dispatched the ball past the “Frozen” Dave Addy-Sutton-Sutton-Addy in goal. Veteran defender Adie Hollands played his 4th different position of the season at left back and rarely put a foot wrong all game and despite being in loads of space for the whole game and shouting countless times “Give it 2 Me” couldn’t put his stamp on the game.
Two more goals followed for Preston which were mainly down to mistakes and AFC’s lack of ability to find a team mate with a simple pass. One wayward pass resulted in Lee Casalino falling to his knees “Like a Prayer”
3-0 at halftime saw the introduction of Banks for manager Barker but his debut was short lived as he went off with a back spasm which meant that Barker had no time at all to recharge his pacemaker and open his Werther’s originals.
AFC started the second half brightly and only a brilliant save by the Preston keeper from 18ft 6 full back James Barker prevented a certain goal but that was about as good as it got until 5 minutes from the end as Preston scored a further 6 goals without reply.
Harry Scott-Peters, looking like he should be on the cover of “Vogue” fed on scraps up front and the only “Ray of Light” for AFC came from another debutant Roland as he gradually began to get “Into The Groove” with his quick feet which caused the Preston midfield concern and resulted in Roland being fouled on the edge of the Preston penalty area 5 minutes from full time. With the Preston players desperately wanting a clean sheet…. man, of the match John Luders put pay to that by curling the ball into the top right-hand corner although it did take a slight deflection.
Luders liked his free kick so much that he posted it on all social media platforms
Despite the 9-1 defeat, each player worked their socks off and kept the team morale high going into next week’s big game against Man City.
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