Men's 2s start year with a win!!

With 14 players, Captain Fawkes encouraged his side to use the subs to keep fresh legs on the pitch.

This didn’t help in the first ten minutes when Ben Rhydding started quickly and controlled the ball in midfield.

The Halifax defence stood strong with Andy Marsland making some good tackles from a defensive midfield position to limit the opposition pressure on the Halifax goal.

Despite making little use of their possession, Rhydding had the ball in the back of the net from a short corner but the initial shot was judged to have been going above the backboard so no goal was awarded.

This was the cue for the first of many loud protests from visitors. Not getting the goal appeared to unsettle the Rhydding team allowing Halifax to get a foot hold in the game mainly due to some good work down the right from Matthew Ward and Olly Jackson.

The team built on this and saw the ball being put through to David Willis who set off on a mazy run to the baseline. He drew the keeper out before squaring the ball across the goal for a simple tap in for the unmarked John Horsley.

Keeping the pressure on the visitors, Halifax created another chance, this time through Kristian Mayland driving out to the touchline. He got the ball through to Horsley who was able to beat 2 players before slotting it past the advancing keeper for his second of the match.

Shortly before half time Ben Rhydding managed to win a short corner which was converted from close range leaving the game at 2-1 as the half time whistle went.

Fawkes voiced his disappointment at the wasteful Halifax possession during the half time team talk leaving Halifax under no doubt that they needed to do better in the second half.

Buoyed by their goal, Rhydding once again came out and put pressure on the Halifax defence but to no avail.

Halifax hit them on the break with Willis once again driving into the opposition D, this time dispatching a shot past the keeper and into the bottom corner taking the game to 3-1.

Then came a period where Halifax were frustrated by some dubious umpiring, the most surprising of which was when the Ben Rhydding players managed to persuade the umpire to reverse his decision to award Halifax a free hit and instead yellow card a Halifax player for a hard challenge.

Having the umpire on their side gave Rhydding a boost and they started to push forward more earning themselves a goal.

Even with the umpire awarding many short corners to the visitors, all disputed by the crowd, Halifax managed to hang on to their lead with the game finishing 3-2.