Stalybridge 1-0 FC Halifax Town: Heath disappointed to see dominance come to nothing

Chris Baguley’s 89th minute goal condemned Town to their worst result of the season so far, against a team who had won just three of their 23 league games before the match.

The Courier was denied the chance to ask questions about Heath’s future after the game, but the Town boss insisted his team did enough to win.

“We dominated for 80 per cent of the game,” he said.

“We had the penalty opportunity and didn’t take it.

“We had Matty Kosylo getting hit off the ball, and the referee doesn’t bother with it - that’s three games where we’ve had incidents where things could have been so different.

“Then the referee deems Danny Hone as a sending-off, which I think is questionable to say the least.

“But I’m just so disappointed because we’ve had 80 per cent of the game, 18 shots, but once again we come away with nothing.”

Heath sensed some nervousness among his team on the day, and was again left to rue poor defending.

He said: “It’s that clinical edge from the whole team. Players are a little bit edgy.

“When the players are trying but we’re not getting the three points the pressure keeps coming and coming.

“We were in total control of the game. Stalybridge were quite happy with the point, even when we went down to 10-men.

“But once again, we don’t defend properly. The kid gets half a yard on Kevin Roberts, puts a ball in the box and we don’t defend it properly.”

Matty Kosylo looked set to take Town’s penalty before Adam Morgan eventually stepped up to have his effort saved.

“We knew that Morgan was going to take it,” Heath said.

“To be fair Matty had a good game. He wanted the ball but Morgs is in form.

“But you’ve got to score from the spot.

“Stalybridge are struggling but they’ve only been getting beaten by the one goal.

“It’s a difficult place to come. It was tight last week against one of the sides in the top six- only won by one goal.

“So when big opportunities are delivered to you, you’ve got to take them.

“But everything that can go wrong is going wrong at the minute.

“The lads are disappointed of course, but we’ve got to keep going.”

Asked what he felt Danny Hone’s sending-off was for, Heath said: “I’m not sure - whether it was for the flailing arm or being last-man.

“It looked pretty innocuous to me. He’s got his body in front of the boy.

“I think it carried on from when Kosylo got hit off the ball which, unfortunately for us, nobody sees.

“I think the referee has made a rash decision, but we were still pushing.

“Danny Clarke had a chance, we had bits and pieces in the box.”

Heath’s decision to substitute Morgan for defender Cliff Moyo after Hone’s dismissal provoked boos and cries of “you don’t know what you’re doing” from the travelling Halifax fans.

On his decision, Heath added: “It’s a difficult decision because Morgs can get you a goal, but you have to choose and the problem we had was we had to keep Denton on the pitch to defend set-pieces.

“We can’t go smaller because he’s such a potent weapon at set-pieces. You have to be physical.

“Morgs isn’t one for playing up front on his own anyway, he’s not that type of player to run the channels or to get hold of the ball.

“You make choices sometimes and we needed another defender on the park.”