Altrincham 0-1 Halifax: Mixed emotions for Town boss after Altrincham win

Halifax made hard work of their win, only scoring the winner with 10 minutes remaining through Liam King’s deflected shot from just outside the box.

Heath admitted his side’s performance was poor.

He said: “It was a very frustrating afternoon. But a win’s a win - it was massively important that we followed up the results we’ve been getting.

“Everybody expected us to come here and win, and in the end we got there.

“There wasn’t a lot of football played, there were lots of wrong choices, but we got the win, and that’s the main thing.

“We’ve played a lot better and won, we’ve played a lot better and lost this season, but we’ve got the three points.”

Town conceded a penalty after just eight minutes when returning defender Matty Brown brought down Andrew Owens in the box.

But Heath was pleased with the centre-back’s first appearance for the club since their FA Trophy win last May.

“We were forced to throw Matty Brown in at the deep end,” Heath said.. “Yes, he’s been training for virtually a month, but he’s played 45 minutes of football - it’s not enough but we had to make a choice.

“He looked a bit rusty but I thought from that penalty decision - and it was a penalty, Matty held his hands up at half-time - onwards, he was outstanding.

“He did what he needed to do, his positional sense was fantastic, he attacked a lot of things and he’s going to get better.

“It was a great save from Sam, he stood up big, he’s not gone to ground early. People might criticise the boy’s penalty but he’s kept it out.”

Heath felt Town should have had a penalty of their own though.

“There were two incidents with Richard Peniket,” Heath said. “He’s gone through on the other side of the box and for me, the keeper or the defender don’t get anything of the ball, and take Richard out.

“Then inside the area, Richard’s held the ball up, moved off the boy, gone to cut inside and the boy’s got nothing of the football. For me it looked an easy decision. I’m convinced it was a penalty, I might be wrong when I see it back.”

Heath praised the performance of match-winner King, who produced another all-action display in the heart of the Halifax midfield.

“I thought there was only going to be one goal in it for either team, and we got it,” added the Halifax boss.

“We brought Liam in for exactly what he’s doing now. He looks mobile again, he looks full of energy, he looks fit again and he will score you goals.

“He’s had his critics, and he’s answering them now. Sometimes when you come to a football club, it takes time to settle in. Liam had his back problem, and it was never going to help with him missing a big chunk of pre-season and then he played when he maybe shouldn’t have done, but that’s Liam, he wants to play.

“I thought he had a great game, he was one of our better players.”