FC Halifax Town: Harvey happy with performance despite defeat

Jim Harvey praised the spirit of his FC Halifax Town side after they lost 1-0 at Dover and slipped back into the National League relegation zone.
Vanarama National League.
FC Halifax v Altrincham.
Halifax's Manager Jim Harvey.
26th March 2016.
Picture : Jonathan GawthorpeVanarama National League.
FC Halifax v Altrincham.
Halifax's Manager Jim Harvey.
26th March 2016.
Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe
Vanarama National League. FC Halifax v Altrincham. Halifax's Manager Jim Harvey. 26th March 2016. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe

Nicky Deverdics’ goal after eight minutes was enough to separate the teams, although The Shaymen hit the bar in the second-half through Jordan Burrow.

Harvey felt his side were unlucky not to get something from the game, but was disappointed with the defending for Dover’s winner.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Harvey said: “I thought the performance was very good and I was happy with everything we did, apart from the goal - I thought it was poor defending.

“A short corner, it’s come back out to him and he’s got one-on-one with Scott McManus.

“He’s a tricky player but the problem was we didn’t have anyone to back Scotty up, somebody should have seen the danger and reacted quicker, and that might have put that opportunity to bed.

“After that we put a terrific effort in, loads of spirit and character.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“For me, we pretty much dominated the game after that but in the box we didn’t have a lot of luck, things didn’t drop for us.

“The time-wasting that went on was pretty poor and for a team that are supposed to be challenging at the top end for promotion, you’d have thought they’d have put a better effort in through the rest of the game.

“But I thought we were very good.”

Burrow and Richard Peniket could both have scored for Halifax, and Harvey felt his side earned at least a point from the match.

He said: “Perhaps we didn’t create enough clear-cut chances until Josh (Macdonald) came on, and he was excellent.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“He did really well, as did Connor (Hughes) in the first-half, but maybe didn’t quite pick out the crosses we needed.

“At Barrow we were poor and didn’t deserve anything out of the game, and the performance was disappointing.

“But today I thought we were excellent. You don’t always get what you deserve but the encouraging thing is the way we played and the spirit of the boys.

“It was always going to be a tough game but having come down and played like that I’m very disappointed we didn’t get something from it.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Harvey said his team didn’t get much luck in the Dover penalty area.

He added: “Nothing fell for us in the box and anything we did get on the end of, it didn’t get in the net.

“We’ve hit the woodwork, they’ve scrambled it off the line - it wasn’t our day in front of goal.”