FC Halifax Town: Goals galore between Trophy finalists this season

The aggregate score between the clubs stands at 9-4 to Grimsby after the Mariners beat Town 7-0 at Blundell Park in October before Halifax exacted a measure of revenge with a 4-2 win in the return fixture in February.

Town captain Nicky Wroe made his debut for the club in the 7-0 hammering having joined on loan from Notts County, and said it was a case of damage limitation once Grimsby established their lead.

“It was a bad night,” he said. “If you look at that team it’s not too dissimilar to the one that went on such a good run later in the season.

“When the score gets to 3-0 and 4-0 you’re just trying to consolidate, keep it tight and shut up shop as best you can.

“It doesn’t matter too much how you play by that point, you just want to keep any more goals out, but they had their tails up.”

Wroe knew he was joining a team devoid of confidence, having also been trounced by Cheltenham earlier that month.

“With the start they’d made I knew they were in trouble, so the Grimsby result didn’t really surprise me.

“Obviously losing by seven was a surprise but we were going there as huge underdogs.

“It’s just a case of confidence - it was really down that night and we’d lost 7-1 a week or so earlier, but look at the return game against Grimsby and you can see the difference.”

By the time the rematch came around, Grimsby were on the receiving end.

“We got an early goal, which settled us down and we were 3-0 up by half-time,” Wroe recalled.

“Confidence is a big thing and we made Grimsby look like we looked in the first game.

“You’d never have guessed that they’d beaten us 7-0 a few months ago.

“I think the performance was up there among the best of the season in terms of the football we played, and our finishing was ruthless.

“We got goals when we were on top in the game, which we sometimes struggled to do.

“It was the most complete performance we had all season.”