Tuesday 18th September 2007

Halifax 3 v 1 Vics

A miserable opening period from Vics seemed to set the tone for what, initially, seemed to be a consequent thrashing.
Connett made a series of impressive early saves to deny Shaw from close range and then he again denied the same player and followed that up by a spectacular reflex save to keep out a Quinn follow up shot. Yet Halifax exhibited some defensive frailties of their own and Heslop set up the opportunity for Brown to deliver a cross from which Tait had a goal bound header blocked.

Shaw headed wide when well placed from a Killeen cross before Heslop produced a slide rule pass from which Coulson produced a full length save from Mawson. But Vics' defensive weaknesses were again exposed by Killeen who was allowed space to set up Killeen and although Connett did well to block out his shot the appropriate support was again lacking and SHAW had no problem in following up to score.

Barely three minutes later and an almost ubiquitous example of farcical defending was initiated by a unnecessary and inadequate back pass from Sharp that was equally inadequately dealt with by Connett to allow SHAW to intercede and score. Moments later Connett partially redeemed himself with another vital save to deny Killeen when through on goal.

Stand in manager Warhurst acted quickly and replaced the vulnerable Sharp with Josh Wilson although his side went on to initiate but survive a catalogue of defensive errors that ended with a superb parried save from Connett to deny Campbell before Strong got in a goal line challenge to prevent Shaw from scoring from the rebound.

Things appeared to have become even worse directly after the break when KILLEEN scored all too easily from a long throw. A thrashing at this stage looked on the cards but from this stage until the end of the game Vics produced their best and most committed passage of play of this season.

Michael Byrne came on to add much needed aggression and passion and barely cleared the bar with an early contribution. With an encouraging renewed vigour Vics reduced the deficit when Carr won the ball in midfield before setting COULSON clear and he scored with a precise left foot finish.

Townson replaced Maamria and Vics maintained a supremacy that we had hardly seen thus far this season. That they were unable to create too many chances from their dominance remains a concern and that Connett was still called upon to deny Campbell from a rare break needs to be addressed, but nevertheless the final 35 minutes proved to be more encouraging than much of what we had seen in previous games.

Referee: R. Joyce
Man of the Match: Michael Coulson
Attendance: 1,256 (about 50 Vics fans)