De Montfort Park Saturday, September 10th, 2011   Conference North Attendance: 571         Hinckley United 3-2 FC Halifax Town
2011 /12

Comments :

Final Score: Hinckley United 3-2 FC Halifax Town As far as unlikely comebacks go, this will take some beating. Town were fully deserving of their 2-0 lead but Hinckley somehow dragged their way back from the brink of defeat to convert their only three shots on goal and steal all three points. The home supporters may have found their voices by full-time but Town fans were left dumbstruck as their side were denied the victory the majority of their performance had merited. While the whole town of Hinckley may not have been in attendance, evidently the Town Crier was, with someone in the crowd in possession of a bell, a rattle and a horn, and he wasn''t afraid to use them. He was silenced early on though as Halifax dominated from the off, with Lee Gregory given a sight of goal within the first minute but he overran Harry Winter''s through ball. Winter was instrumental in The Shaymen''s bright start, supplying a useful bridge between midfield and attack: one such example saw him release Danny Lowe down the left on one of his forays forward but his cross just evaded Gregory in the middle when any contact would have turned it goalwards. Town''s attractive approach play was exemplified by a delightful back-heel by Terry Dixon ten minutes in as the visitors enjoyed the relatively bobble-free playing surface. The pitch was lending itself to carefully constructed build-up play and Halifax produced a fine example of that to take the lead on 35 minutes. Tom Baker, in imperious form as ever in the middle third, dispatched a beautifully flighted pass into Gregory''s path and the striker executed a superb chip over the stranded Dan Haystead to leave the Town fans behind the goal celebrating before it even hit the net. Before that, David Haggerty had been forced into an early appearance when Gregg Anderson was taken off in obvious discomfort with what looked like a shoulder problem. The substitute could have found the net either side of Gregory''s goal, both from free-kicks, but was denied first by Haystead''s right leg midway through the first-half and then saw his stooping header drift just wide shortly before the interval. Town''s superiority in that opening half was such that it had taken until the 33rd minute for Hinckley to force their first corner, which resulted in a burst of noise from the Town Crier impersonator, but the bell was already tolling for his side unless they could produce a far better second-half showing. Dixon had shown some delicate touches throughout and his best yet came just after the break as he slipped Baker through with a clever reverse ball before the Town captain''s left-footed shot was tipped onto the near post and behind. Harry Winter would have timed his goal to perfection had he kept his shot down when the ball fell kindly to him on the edge of the box after 54 minutes, as Hinckley then immediately enjoyed their best spell of the game. However, despite seeing far more of the ball in the next five minutes than they had in the whole of the game until then, the most they could muster was a wayward shot by Andre Gray. Town''s second goal seemed to have released any semblance of pressure the hosts had managed to build though as Winter made no mistake this time, on hand to tap-in after Dixon''s shot across goal was spilled into his path. Halifax appeared to have the game sewn up, but The Knitters had other ideas and four minutes later, they halved the deficit. Andre Gray had been lacklustre at best up until then, but he was well placed to turn in a free-kick when he was almost in contact with the near post despite Simon Eastwood''s best efforts to keep it out. The bell was ringing again at 2-1 and the sound of it clattering ten minutes later signalled an unlikely equaliser for Hinckley when a deep cross from the right was headed back across goal and in by substitute Danny Newton. Hinckley''s home support had been silenced after Halifax''s second, but Town now had the home side''s equaliser ringing in their ears. The transformation from one-sided dominance to an end-to-end climax was mystifying even to the home fans, so Hinckley''s third with four minutes left was greeted with barely contained disbelief. Gray was set free by a perfectly weighted through ball and just beat Eastwood to it before being brought down by the Town keeper, leaving a penalty as the only decision the referee could have made. Luke Dean, a former Halifax loanee, sent Eastwood the wrong way and completed a comeback even the Town Crier impresario wouldn''t have seen coming. Hinckley: Haystead, Oddy, Gudger, Horne (c) (Newton 46), Reynolds, Lister, Kerry, Dean, Jermaine Clarke, Gray, Hendrie (Holt 60). Subs Not Used: Clarke. Goalscorers: Gray (68), Newton (77), Dean (pen 86) Shots On Target: 3 Shots Off Target: 3 Corners: 1 Halifax: Eastwood, Hardy, Lowe, Anderson, L Hogan, McManus, Winter (Needham 69), Baker (c), Dixon (Holland 83), Gregory, Garner. Subs Not Used: Senior, S Hogan. Goalscorers: Gregory (35), Winter (64) Shots On Target: 8 Shots Off Target: 5 Corners: 4 Man of the Match: Tom Baker Tom Scargill