Men's 2nds slump to heavy defeat

Halifax started badly with an early goal conceded that made the game outlook look ominous.

Then an early thigh injury to Trevor Love left Halifax with only 11 for the remaining three quarters of the game, with late substitute Aiden Crowe making only his second appearance of the season.

Despite this, Cameron Hellowell, deputising for the absent Horsley, and the returning Kristian Mayland caused many problems for the Sheffield defence and Mayland duly equalised, deflecting in an opportunistic cross to beat the Sheffield goalkeeper at his near post.

The game became more even as both sides struggled to get the upper hand with father and son team of Dave and Sam Spanner linking well between defence and attack.

However, just before half time Sheffield retook the lead when a shot was saved, but dribbled along the goal line, and as Halifax defenders Barker and Fawkes tried to deal with it, the Sheffield centre forward rushed in to score.

The second half began with a period of sustained Halifax pressure which brought a number of short corners, none of which unfortunately were converted and as the game entered the fourth quarter a visibly tiring Halifax began to make mistakes against a fitter team that used their full complement of subs well.

The third and fourth goals came from breakaways as Halifax pushed higher up the pitch, but did not have the energy to then recover. The final brace came as a ragged Halifax began to give the ball away and a visibly relaxing Sheffield side ran riot to make the game appear more one sided that it actually was.

Halifax need to win their match with Leeds this week to avoid having a true ‘6 point’ relegation battle with Rotherham the following week that could decide which of the two teams is relegated.