FC Halifax Town review of the year

Not this time. By December 2018 and 2017, strong starts had long since faded and cold, hard reality had set in.

This year has been different. The Shaymen are still within touching distance of the play-off places, with 11 wins, and 38 points from 25 games.

Rewind to January, and Halifax were in the midst of their bleak mid-winter, toiling to draws against Braintree, Barrow and Aldershot.

Defensively, Town were superb, only conceding more than once in a game in one of their first 13 games of the year, which included eight clean sheets.

But it was at the other end of the pitch where their problems lay, sorely lacking attacking flair and goalscoring ability.

The gloom was occasionally lifted, such as when they played well drawing with Salford, and produced a rousing comeback to take Solihull to a replay in the FA Trophy.

But the green shoots of recovery were gradual, only really sprouting with the much-needed loan signings of James Hardy, Devante Rodney, who netted seven goals in 12 games, and Manny Duku, who all added much-needed quality to Town’s attack.

With their help, Eastleigh, Barnet and Solihull were beaten as Halifax at last played with a spring in their step.

It was still patchy towards the end of the season though, with a highly entertaining 2-2 draw at Leyton Orient contrasted by a dour 1-0 home defeat to Maidenhead.

But back-to-back wins against Wrexham and Fylde at least ended the campaign on a high.

And then, nothing.

Players left, including Matty Kosylo after three years at the club, but none arrived.

Pre-season loomed and then arrived, but the squad remained worryingly threadbare, with only four arrivals - Jack Earing, Will Appleyard, Jamie Allen and Tobi Sho-Silva - for the first pre-season game at Farsley.

The previous game at Frickley had been cancelled due to lack of players, and two days after the 1-0 win at Farsley, Jamie Fullarton had gone.

Turned out no news had been good news.

Nathan Clarke and Steve Nichol took over temporarily, finding themselves in the surreal surroundings of Doncaster Rovers’ training ground with a far from fully-formed squad.

But Town battled to a 1-1 draw, and after a further run-out at Darlington, Pete Wild was handed the reins just 10 days before the start of the campaign.

Ironically, his first game was Town’s last pre-season friendly at his former club Oldham - if a 1-0 win can ever be convincing, this was it.

Suddenly, the mood was transformed. Signings were made, positivity radiated from the changing room and the club was galvanized.

Wild made a remarkable start, winning his first three and then, after a draw and a defeat, his next four.

Nathan Clarke’s jaw-dropping goal from inside his own half in the 4-1 opening day win at Ebbsfleet topped a tremendous victory, while supposed big-hitters Fylde and Solihull were beaten at The Shay.

The style of football was swashbuckling, fearless and free-flowing. Town’s watertight defence of the previous season was perhaps more porous as a result, but the shackles had been taken off.

Town’s 3-2 win at Chesterfield at the start of September was a delightful display of confident, attacking football which unfortunately proved impossible to maintain.

But unlike the decline of the previous two seasons, The Shaymen have clung onto the coat-tails of the pacesetters.

Three wins and three defeats after that victory at Chesterfield prolonged their impressive start into October, but suggested the end of the beginning was setting in.

Harrogate disappointingly ended Halifax’s FA Cup involvement at the first hurdle, while Bromley hit five without reply - inflicting Halifax’s heaviest defeat since the 7-0 thrashing at Grimsby in 2015 - against a Town team that was unrecognisable from the one that had played with such effervescence earlier in the campaign.

A hard-fought 1-0 win at Sutton brought some relief but form was, and remains, mixed, with a strong display in a 2-2 draw at Harrogate followed by a frustrating 2-0 defeat at 10-man Yeovil.

A 4-0 win over Wrexham has raised hopes for a decent FA Trophy run next year, but it is now one win in 10 league games after Saturday’s 4-2 defeat to Notts County, which is cause for concern.

Town are no longer among the pacesetters, but are also yet to be dragged into mid-table obscurity.

Let’s see what the New Year brings.


Player of the year

Sam Johnson and Matty Brown run him close, but Nathan Clarke just pips them to the accolade. A model professional and a model of consistency, he played every single minute of every single game until his recent suspension for a red card at Woking in mid-November.

One half of a formidable defensive partnership with Brown, Clarke was a key part of the defence which kept 19 league clean sheets last season.

Clarke also helped steady the ship after the departure of Jamie Fullarton during pre-season left the club rudderless and drifting, temporarily taking the reins until the arrival of Pete Wild.

And then there’s THAT goal at Ebbsfleet. 


High point of the year

Town’s marvellous 3-2 win at Chesterfield on a Tuesday night at the start of September, which put them top of the National League.

The performance was reminiscent of The Shaymen’s 3-0 win at Leyton Orient at almost exactly the same stage of the season two years previously under Billy Heath, which had put Halifax second.

Cameron King, Jamie Allen and Nathan Clarke put The Shaymen 3-0 up at Chesterfield, with Town playing vibrant, free-flowing, attacking football.

The hosts made a game of it after that, but anything other than a Halifax win would have been a travesty on the night in-front of 481 travelling Town fans.


Low point of the year

Halifax’s dour, drab 0-0 home draw with Aldershot in February, which extended their run without a win to nine games and left them two points above the National League drop zone.

The result stretched The Shaymen’s goalless run to seven-and-a-half-hours, against an Aldershot side on a club-record winless run of 17 games.

Halifax only managed one shot on target in a flat and flailing performance, which was greeted by boos at the final whistle.

Mercifully, Scott Quigley ended the winless and goalless runs next time out at Maidstone, and results started to improve.