It wasn’t exactly a thrill-a-minute at the Racecourse Ground but FC Halifax Town manager Neil Aspin was eager to replay the ‘photo-finish’ decision which, ultimately, ensured the Shaymen only drew with ten-man Wrexham, instead of claiming all three points.
Marc Roberts’ second half header from Josh Wilson’s teasing free-kick was disallowed for offside against the Town centre-back, leaving Aspin to ponder if the correct decision was actually made. After the stalemate in North Wales, the Shay Chief told Shaymen Player:
“I just hope that the linesman is right. That will make the difference tonight in how I feel if it proves that it shouldn’t have been disallowed.
“The only thing I will say is that he had his flag up early and he was adamant that he was offside.
“I can’t really comment because I wasn’t in line with it. It is disappointing but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
One decision that did go in Town’s favour was the dismissal of former Premier League striker Brett Ormerod, who was given a straight red card on the stroke of half-time following an off-the-ball incident with Roberts. On the sending off Aspin said:
“I didn’t see it but Marc Roberts is honest enough to say that the lad kicked him and that it was needless.
“Wrexham will be disappointed with the sending off because there was no need for it but I thought they were fortunate earlier because the tackle on Lois could have been a red card. His sock is all ripped and is shin is all gashed.
“But I’m not going to be shouting for players to be sent off as it’s not my style. The sending off did change the game; we have had players sent off this season and it makes it more difficult.
“At eleven versus eleven, the pressure is on them to come forward and to win the game. But when they go down to ten men the crowd are probably more accepting of just taking a point and I think they set their stall out to take a point.”
The draw means the Shaymen are still winless in 2014 but Aspin was very pleased with his side’s performance, especially after their tame showing in the 2-0 defeat at Tamworth last weekend. An encouraged Aspin commented:
“It was a much better performance than last week. I was honest enough with my assessment of last week at Tamworth; we weren’t good enough and it was a very poor performance.
“But I felt today that we were a lot better and even at eleven versus eleven we were well in the game and we were well capable of getting a result. Obviously the sending off did change the game in that it limited Wrexham in the attacks that they had but they were still difficult to break down.
“I’m not too disappointed today because there were a lot of positives, whereas I didn’t gain any positives from last week. The one criticism that I would have is that we didn’t work their goalkeeper enough. He didn’t have many saves to make and we didn’t really create any clear-cut chances.
“Wrexham sat back and got many men behind the ball and made it difficult but I would like to think that we would’ve created more opportunities in the game.
“It is a point gained. Every point that we get is towards the total that we need to get. We all know we have been better at home so any point we get away from home is a bonus.
“And I’ve enjoyed coming to Wrexham. It’s a fantastic ground with great tradition and it just shows how much progress we have made when we play at stadiums like this. It is certainly where we want to be.”
The full interview with Neil Aspin can be viewed on Shaymen Player
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