Shaymen cruise to comfortable home win over Maidstone

Mani Dieseruvwe put Town into a half-time lead before Milli Alli and Rob Harker rounded things off to seal Halifax's fourth win in five.

It's now three league wins in a row for the first time this season and three goals in three consecutive games for the first time since December 2020. Whatever happened to those goalscoring problems?

It's a shame the end of the season is looming, but at least The Shaymen seem to be heading to Wembley in fine form.

They took a while to get going here, but once they did it was no contest.

You were losing count after ten minutes of how many times Town had given the ball away, with such carelessness making it difficult to impose themselves.

Maidstone weren't brilliant but were looking after the ball better and at least stringing some pass together.

A better first touch could have seen Ryan Viggars one-on-one with Sam Johnson early on.

But the beleaguered visitors fell behind after an encouraging first quarter of an hour when Adam Senior's shot was spilled by Tom Halder and Dieseruvwe was left with a simple finish on the rebound.

It was no reflection on the start of the contest.

Halifax were better after the goal, which settled them down and helped them assume control of the match.

Maidstone kept plugging away but were limited.

Roarie Deacon brought a good save from Sam Johnson one-on-one, but the away side had passed six hours without a goal by half-time.

The opening 45 minutes had been as stodgy as the pitch; messy, scrappy, unrefined.

The first-half was summed up when Town tried to take a short corner just before the break but ended up being caught offside.

Flowing football from either side was almost non-existent, not helped by the surface.

There was a stark contrast to the previous match here, with the intensity and quality on show against Wrexham conspicuous by its absence, while the flat atmosphere was mirrored by the game.

The Shaymen had fed off the big crowds and big atmospheres against Wrexham and York, but fans and players were being starved of any real excitement now.

Town weren't troubled at the back other than Deacon's chance, but weren't doing enough on the ball to test the league's worst defence, not moving the ball quickly enough, not creating openings, not getting in-behind often enough.

After the exhilarating Easter weekend, it all felt a bit lethargic and pedestrian.

It was a bit more incisive a few minutes after the interval when Tylor Golden found Jamie Cooke with a clever pass, but his shot was straight at Hadler.

Alli was starting to see more of the ball too, and latched onto Dieseruvwe's flick-on, but ran out of room after rounding the keeper and could only hit the side-netting.

Alli and Cooke were moved to wing-back after an hour, with only one team offering even a sniff of scoring.

And the second goal arrived a few minutes later when Cooke's cross was nodded in by Alli from eight yards.

It got better as substitute Harker scored his first since netting twice against Harrow at the end of January when Dieseruvwe did brilliantly down the left and his cross laid it on a plate for his striker partner at the far post.

After edging the first-half, Halifax were now cruising the second. Their superior quality eventually telling.

Halifax: Johnson, A Senior, Stott, J Senior, Golden (Warburton 61), Hunter, Gilmour (Keane 71), Capello (Harker 57), Alli, Cooke, Dieseruvwe. Subs not used: Arthur

Scorers: Dieseruvwe (15), Alli (65), Harker (72)

Shots on target: 5

Shots off target: 7

Corners: 8

Maidstone: Hadler, Berkoe, Fowler, Brown, Zouma, Bone, Odusanya (Marshall 77), Booty, Deacon, Gurung (Iandolo 63), Viggars (Jeche 67). Subs not used: Mersin, Walters.

Shots on target: 1

Shots off target: 3

Corners: 2

Attendance: 1,985 (62 away)

Referee: Steve Copeland

Town man of the match: Mani Dieseruvwe. Led the line really well, looked sharp, scored one and set up another.