Halifax lose latest pre-season friendly 1-0 at Scunthorpe United

It's now four defeats in seven warm-up games for Town, and the second in a row without a goal or a shot on target.

Pre-season games should not be read into a great deal. other than looking for clues about what might lie ahead.

But if there are hints about what to expect for the season to come, they might be that Halifax need to sharpen up in attack.

The first-half was certainly less one-sided than at Radcliffe on Tuesday, with Town at least showing a bit more influence over the game.

But Scunthorpe played the slightly better football in the final third, linking up more smoothly than the visitors, who were too disjointed.

Kian Scales and Jason Law both brought a save from Sam Johnson around 20 minutes in, both from the left of the box, after decent approach play by the home side.

By contrast, what control Town exerted over the ball fell away the closer they got to goal.

Adan George, in the number ten role, and Jamie Cooke, playing up top, were mostly given little other than speculative lofted passes to feed off, while wingers Angelo Cappello and Andrew Oluwabori weren't effective enough, with the latter getting on the ball more often but losing it too often.

Halifax's first shot of the game wasn't until the 38th minute, when Oluwabori cut in from the left on his right and arrowed a shot just wide of the far post.

That was The Shaymen's only shot of an underwheling first 45 in which, again, their most impressive players were in defence; Will Smith defened aggressively, while the triallist left-back showed some nice touches and linked up play.

George moved up-front for the second-half after Cooke's withdrawal, but still remained peripheral.

Max Kouogun hit the post for Scunthorpe with a prod at goal from a free-kick, as the hosts remained the likelier to score.

As it did on Tuesday, the pace and intensity of the game dropped after half-time, not making it any easier for two teams who struggled to create chances in the first-half to do so now.

Carlton Ubaezuonu had shanked a half-chance well wide from the right of the box in the opening half, but saw his shot deflected in midway through the second, with Scunthorpe deserving their lead on the balance of play.

And The Shaymen did nothing to change that, only producing fairly pedestrian possession with very little hint of menace about it.

A decent cross by Oluwabori and a shot narrowly wide by George at least represented incremental progress from Halifax as the clock ticked down, but even though they applied some overdue pressure late on, Scunthorpe keeper Ross Fitzsimons remained untested.

He did stretch to reach George's free kick with the last kick of the game, but it hit the top of the bar.

Scunthorpe: Fitzsimons, Barrows, Boyce, Kouogun, Nicholson, Clunan, Beestin, Scales, Law, Ubaezuonu, Braithwaite. Subs: Campbell, Kelly, Evans, Whitehall, Roberts, Rowley, Fishburn, Brogan, Shrimpton.

Scorer: Ubaezuonu (63)

Shots on target: 3

Shots off target: 6

Corners: 5

Halifax: Johnson, Senior, Smith, Cummings, Triallist, Evans, Jenkins, Cappello, Cooke, Oluwabori, George. Subs: Triallist, Triallist, Wright, Alimi-Adetoro, Pugh.

Shots on target: 0

Shots off target: 4

Corners: 1

Referee: Ruebyn Ricardo

Attendance: 1,174 (83 away)

Town man of the match: The Shaymen's triallist left-back stood out for me with a calm but combative performance, defending well but also supporting attacks.