It’s fair to say that Kevin Roberts was a relieved man after his injury time equalizer rescued a point for 10 men FC Halifax Town against Salford City FC in a thrilling 2-2 contest.
It was a roller coaster of a 90 minutes for the midfielder, the likes of which he will probably never experience again in a Shaymen Shirt.
“No player wants a goal and an assist for both teams I can assure you,” Roberts laughed “So I’m relieved we’ve managed to come away with something”.
“Before the game we would have taken a point. Actually being in the game though you’d have to say they didn’t create a lot of clear chances and their two goals have come from two mistakes which is unfortunate” said Roberts.
Roberts was on hand to provide the opening goal of the game, a wonderful free-kick curling in off the right to pick out the head of Scott Garner on 33 minutes, before conceding a penalty with an unfortunate handball 8 minutes into the second half.
Roberts then miscued his defensive header which saw the ball unkindly bobble into the bottom left corner of Steve Drench’s goal with 15 minutes remaining.
“The penalty probably looks worse than my own goal to be honest. The corner came in and I’ve slipped and my arm’s come up as natural body movement. I thought it was a tough one to take and I have no excuses for the own goal, I was in a poor position and should have dealt with the header.”
Roberts and the team didn’t let their heads drop and in the 92nd minute the ball found Roberts from 12 yards whose headed effort sailed over Salford keeper Jay Lynch, clipping the underside of the bar before dropping into the net, sending the incredible away support behind the goal into delirium.
“Salford came out second half and really pushed us and showed why they’ve been up at the top these past few weeks. Huge credit to the lads though , we showed great spirit when we went down to ten men and managed to fight back. At the end it felt like a win celebrating with the crowd. Back in the dressing room you have more time to reflect and we felt disappointed that it wasn’t all 3 points but we’ve come to the league leaders and got a point so we’ve got to be happy with that at least” said Roberts.
The Shaymen return home on Saturday when they host Stalybridge Celtic at the MBI Shay Stadium and Roberts insists it’s time to hit the ground running again.
“We’ve got to start winning our home games. Picking 3 points up on Saturday will make this point feel a bit better. It’s okay picking up points away but we need to be winning our home games. No disrespect to Stalybridge but they haven’t started the season particularly well and we need to be putting times like them away if we want to achieve promotion” Roberts concluded.
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