Men's 2nds start the new year with a victory

Leeds Adel Carnegie 2 Halifax 3
Scorers : Greenwood, Horsley, Hellowell

Halifax II went to Leeds Adel Carnegie for the first fixture post Christmas hoping to arrest a slump that had seen them begin to slide down the table. A change of formation, along with having a full team and substitutes, allowed Halifax to enter the game with a degree of confidence.

However a poor start allowed Leeds to dominate and despite packing the midfield, Halifax seemed to be one man short. Despite this the defence was secure with Graham Rodgers and Steve Fawkes giving Roy Atkinson’s goal good protection. Using the rolling substitutes to full effect, Halifax kept working hard to bring themselves into the game without producing many attempts on goal, although John Horsley tried hard, it was difficult with only one man up front, despite the support of Cameron Hellawell and Simon Arch wide out.

The second half continued in the same vein with the majority of possession and pressure coming from Leeds, but Halifax showing a cutting edge to make regular breakaways with Oliver James making great breaks. Finally from one of these breakaways Halifax secured a short corner which Luke Greenwood converted with a straight shot from the top of the D. The goal altered the flow of the game as Leeds increased the pace in search of an equaliser, allowing more space for Halifax to attack and a more open game was the result. This led to a superb second goal where intricate interpassing between Greenwood and Sam Spencer opened up the Leeds defence and a diving Horsley converted the resultant cross. The game then became very hectic as Leeds pressed for a way back into the game, which they achieved with ten minutes to go when a long cross was converted at the back post. With Leeds pressing high for the equalizer, a long clearance found Horsley who won a short corner. This was converted when a shot from Greenwood was deflected in by Hellawell. Leeds went down to the other end and scored a late consolation goal, and had a short corner on the final whistle, but did not score to achieve the draw that their performance merited.

Halifax now have another difficult away match against top of the table Airedale, but have something to build on after this result.