Graham masterclass for Men’s 1sts
Men's 1sts continue their fine run with a 4-3 win over Chapletown 2nds. Striker M.Graham scoring all 4 halifax goals
Halifax 1sts 4 – 3 Cahpletown 2nds
Scorers : Graham, M (4)
Halifax had by far their hardest game against a good Chapletown team who tried to match the Halifax lads with a good solid passing game.
The 1st 15 minutes saw both teams probing for openings and while the Halifax players showed more adventure, their final pass was not good enough to create the scoring opportunity until the Matthew Graham show started.
A good move down the right involving Josh Sutcliffe, Kristian Mayland and Jake Bamforth saw the ball fall to Matthew Bairstow, his shot was mishit but Graham was first to react to the lose ball and he opened the scoring. Chapletown hit back almost immediately from a well worked penalty corner. Halifax then took the lead also from a penalty corner won by Tom Love driving into the opponents D before being fouled. Graham despatched the corner with an audicious reverse stick hit that completely wrong footed the Chapletown keeper.
Some sloppy marking in the Halifax defence allowed Chapletown space in the D and they equalised just before half time.
The half time talk was about showing more composure on the ball and keeping possession better and the team reacted positively with Michael Jones using his undoubted skills to good effect as he spread the play and stretched Chapletown.
Graham was able to complete his hat trick reacting quickly to a lose ball in the D and with minimum of back lift despatched his shot like a rocket into the goal. 10 minutes later. he was put in space by the clever play of Mayland and once again he hit an unstoppable shot to make it 4-2 and a 4 goal tally.
The next 10 minutes saw Chapletown starting to build pressure and some timely tackles from veteran Paul Graham, Josh Foreman and Dave Wheatley were needed to keep the 2 goal advantage. Matthew Metclafe also mad a great save from a penalty corner.
In the dying seconds Chapletown did manage a 3rd goal but it was too late for a fight back.
Halifax go to Wakefield next week in confident mood for a morning start at 11.30!