Three wins and three clean sheets in a row now! Are John McGrath’s men now finding that consistency he sought after the Wolves win post-match? Hopefully so.
For the opening twenty minutes of last Saturday’s first ever match-up with Hornchurch, I thought we were in for a tough afternoon. They appeared to be a side bigger, stronger, and harder in the tackle than The Shaymen, but, as John McGrath alluded to at full-time, once Town made that one positive move from defence into midfield for Zak Gilsenan the pendulum swung in Town’s favour.
As is the case with most wins, nobody in a blue shirt had a particularly ‘bad game’ with impressive displays especially from Raheem Conte, Shaun Hobson, Will Flint, and Zak Gilsenan. The former Barcelona man opening the scoring on the stroke of half-time following excellent work down the opposite left side saw Conor Carty square low and across goal for Gilsenan to meet with the outside of his right boot (and a clip off the left leg of Connor Douglas).
Ben Tollitt bagged another on 65 which is now becoming an almost trademark move and low curled shot fashion beyond Arthur Nasta in The Urchins’ goal. Another point that was highlighted by McGrath at full-time was his pleasure at both the team and Tollitt creating that space in and around opposition boxes.
Hornchurch Manager Daryll McMahon spoke of his side ‘not being able to cope’ with Town ‘the much better side’ on the afternoon and how about the way the match was wrapped up!
Tayt Trusty’s 86th minute goal was worthy of completing a win or winning any game of football. It will take some effort for the remainder of this season to dislodge it from this season’s ‘Goal of The Season’ already. The ball sat up just right from him to smash a low, right-footed volley from 25 plus yards past an already beaten Nasta (it had the perfect amount of curl to take it away and right into that bottom corner also). What a player he is developing into currently as well with some supporters already liken him to Kane Thompson-Summers. He is the epitome of the philosophy this club has set out over last decade and more – relatively ‘unknown’ youngsters from lower leagues (as is arguably the case for the former Eastbourne Borough Midfielder), or a recent higher level academy release that leave this club (mainly, we have had a good ‘hit ratio’ all-in-all) for the Football League. Yes, I could turn this piece into thousands upon thousands of words as to the ins and outs, positives and negatives of this approach, but for now let’s enjoy seeing (fingers very much crossed) our current crop of youngsters and relatively young managers also develop.
True Grant and the backline ticked another clean sheet off also with The Urchins having very little, if any clear-cut chances. They were marshalled very well between Flint and Hobson with their wide players more concerned with Bardell and Conte making forward movements rather than vice-versa.
Staying with the positive week so far, Town stopped a roll of four straight defeats at Grosvenor Vale thanks to substitute Amari Morgan-Smith’s 58th minute winner. With said previous visits on the minds of many fans in the build-up, coupled with The Stones’ recent upturn in form, most views I heard pre-match were that of a draw being a respectable result.
A drab first half unfortunately saw the end of the evening for both Zak Gilsenan and Conor Carty following colliding with one another. At the time of writing all that has been disclosed is Zak’s is an impact injury with Conor taken off as slight precaution due to spasming in his back following the collision.
Amari Morgan-Smith once more demonstrated why he was brought in this pre-season. A Striker of the mould Halifax fans are not accustomed to bringing a wealth of experience at 37 rather than a youngster as mentioned earlier. I make out that the former Kidderminster Harriers man is the first ‘experienced’ Forward signed by The Shaymen since Andy Bishop arrived from Wrexham back in the summer of 2013.
The goal started the same as Ben Tollitt’s against Hornchurch with Cody Johnson driving from his own half into the oppositions, a square ball to Trusty who feeds into a wing – this time the right where Will Hugill stung the palms of the Goalkeeper for it to fall at Tollitt’s feet who squared across to Morgan-Smith who powered low it the bottom left hand corner beyond the reach of the Wealdstone player on the line too. The Shaymen up to 9th following the result.
Finally, onto today’s opponents Sutton United. The U’s won 4 in a row to start the campaign, before three defeats on the bounce and a win last time out versus Eastleigh at home sees them 7th in the Enterprise National League.
It’s safe to say in the last decade or so Sutton have had the better history of the two sides thriving in FA Cup runs (an FA Cup run on the flip a kind of Achilles Heel for The Shaymen for the last 35 years plus) which saw them beat Leeds United and welcome Arsenal to Gander Green Lane. Scaffolded by said runs and astute signings the club gained promotion to the Football League as Champions of the 2020/21 National League campaign, the one held behind closed doors for most of the season. What a bizarre feeling it must have been for U’s fans forced to celebrate through watching a streaming service and saying farewell to a non-league club to then return to a team and club that ran out as a Football League one!
There’s not much to add on the head-to-head front, no patterns emerge as such looking back through previous results. 12 previous meetings have heralded 4 Town wins, 4 Sutton wins, and 4 draws. We have each beaten each other in a combination of home and away matches also.
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