Halifax Town 1 – Forest Green Rovers 2
Something smelt wrong for the Rovers’ first big away game.
Okay, we won, but it is strange how the result of a game can tell a different story to what really happened. It’s early days but today was FGR’s hardest challenge so far this season and the fact that we won tells us so much about where we are now, working together as a really tight team.
But it was scary to watch, and painful at times. As Robbie Savage said afterwards, we did not really deserve to win today.
If you were superstitious, a 524-metre-high moment on the road there said something. Before we dropped down into Huddersfield and the last few miles of the 190-plus to Halifax, we parked at the top of Holme Moss Summit, which is in the High Peak District of Derbyshire. It’s a dramatic viewpoint, if it wasn’t was plagued by clouds of Bibio pomonae, otherwise called the Heather Fly. So we kept going, past more reservoirs that have almost run out of water… another omen?
Finally, before you get to the Shay, on the outskirts of Halifax town centre, there was also a strong smell of something unpleasant on Salterhebble Road, which apparently is a historic issue and the sewage works there seems to be the source. That was enough omens.
The Shay and the Shaymen who play there take their name from the historic name of the land where they are, which is a woodland area. The name still works because the stadium is surrounded by beautiful trees and it adds a pleasant feel to the venue, which has just had a new pitch and – as in our experience at The New Lawn last season – also saw no games for the start of the calendar, this being the first home match for Halifax.
Could they give the crowd (well, those who turned up to support them – it was hardly full) a decent Christening for the new grass?
It really looked like they could. From the kick off, FGR looked less quick and less supercharged than in the Sutton home game on Wednesday, when we blew the visitors apart. You could see the quality, but it didn’t feel the same. I was suprised that Doidge started as the sole striker. We are now used to bringing him in off the bench late and when Steve Cotterill listened to everyone pleading to play him from the start, he seemed less effective. That’s what happened here. But we did score, to open the battle, Bamba drilling one into the net off a rebound. After watching the odd poor clearance and several bad passes, this settled our nerves.
Then, just before half time, a poor tackle from just outside our penalty area led to a free kick which put things back level again. The Shaymen were clearly not Sutton. They were fighting back hard.
So we went into the second half in crash position, at least as spectators. Halifax created many opportunities to move ahead but didn’t take them. So, it was up to our team to show them how that’s done – and it all came down to Tommy Knowles.
He rescued what looked like a failed mission down the right-hand side and battled his way through to the corner closest to us, but kept going until he could serve Kairo Mitchell a peach of a ball, a fairly easy tap-in at the goalmouth and Kairo’s second goal in four games. Among other moments in the game when he stood out, Knowles was unquestionably man of the match.
So, if the facts tell you ultimately that this was a great day out, why did it feel like such a scary game? Firstly, Halifax may have lost for their big first day at home (sorry guys), but they look to be a strong force in this coming season.
Secondly, that doesn’t take away from the fact that we didn’t play with the force we showed against Solihull, Yeovil and Sutton. Teams have bad days and I suppose that if we can lose on a bad day, we have a lot of celebrate. Perhaps we have also been spoilt by the games so far, but I hope it returns at full force tomorrow.
The best message from today though was this: despite doing well last season, when it came to big away days like this, we were not good at winning, settling for a few defeats and plenty of draws. If we can win on a day that felt bad, it’s another good sign.
Rupert Hacker is a Katharine Lady Berkeley’s School Ambassador for Forest Green Rovers.
