MANAGER Chris Wilder had no doubt about the decisive moment in Town's FA Cup first round exit at the hands of Burton on Saturday - Cortez Belle's error within two minutes of the start of the second half that allowed Albion to go two-up and go on to a 4-0 triumph.
Already down to 10 men following the dismissal of Anthony Griffith, the Shaymen turned round 1-0 behind after Daryl Clare curled home the free kick that followed the midfielder's foul on Shaun Harrad.
But the second goal just 90 seconds after the break, when Belle had a delayed clearance charged down by John McGrath who raced away to score, proved the final nail in the coffin for their cup hopes.
Click here to see the slide show from the game."I said at half time that we needed to keep our shape, keep in the game and see where we were with 20 minutes to go," said Wilder.
"If we had gone gung-ho we would have been out of the game.
"But we committed football suicide.
"I don't know what my centre half was doing. He just did what he wanted to do himself instead of clearing his lines.
"It really was a gift and it killed the game."
Griffith's red card - the fifth for a Town player in eight games - was followed immediately by the first of Clare's two goals.
And it swung the game Burton's way after what had been an entertaining opening quarter to the tie.
"It was a good game in the first 15 or 20 minutes with both teams up for it and going for it," said Wilder.
"Yet again we have lost a man and it was an unfortunate one.
"There was a ricochet from a Tom Kearney pass, the ball broke through to a Burton player and Anthony Griffith got in a tangle with him.
"The goal was a double whammy because our man gets sent off and Daryl Clare puts it in a postage stamp in the top corner.
"It was a finish you would expect to see at the highest level."
Wilder reacted to the red card by bringing off Darryn Stamp and replacing him with Steve Bushell - a direct replacement for Griffith in the centre of midfield.
The crowd responded to the change with a chorus of boos, seeing it as a negative move by the Halifax bench.
"The plan was not to just sit back and I know that people were unhappy with Darryn Stamp coming off," said Wilder.
"We had two or three options we could have taken. We could have gone 4-4-1, 3-4-2 or 4-3-2. Looking at it if we had gone 4-3-2 their wingers could have isolated our full backs - Matt Doughty who was on a booking and Rob Scott who hadn't played for two months.
"We planned to go 3-4-2 later in the game."
Match reportThe full article contains 504 words and appears in Evening Courier newspaper.
