Halifax Rangers 2 Falcon Pine 1

Falcon lost this game in dramatic fashion conceding a goal with almost the last kick of the game despite dominating the entire game !

It was Rangers that took the lead against the run of play after Bartle was disposessed and then the Rangers forward went on the chip the stranded Ben Orchard who will have been disapointed not to have done better as he palmed the ball into the net.

Pine then embarked on wave after wave of attacks with their midfield at times so far up the pitch that Falcon were effectively playing 4-2-4.

Mike Jordan was in stunning form as he tormented the Rangers right back with his wing play and it was he who set up the Falcon equaliser early in the 2nd half from a free kick the leathal Adam Probets headed home.

The Halifax Rangers keeper was in inspired form as he thwarted shot after shot especially from Probets as he pulled off some world class shot stops !

Rangers were very sharp however and counter attacked with pacy forwards forcing Pines defenders to work hard, Smith and Brownridge again looking very solid.

With time running out it seemed Pine were never going to get a winner and manager Bartle decided to try to prevent the counter attacks of Rangers by sacrificing Jordan with just 3 minutes left, the reason being that as Pine had Chapman pushed far up the pitch we were still likely to create chances but at the same time it would tighten us up by bringing on Assad Quereshi on in a central midfield role.

But with his first touch Quereshi gave the ball to Ian Quick who passed a through ball and as Craig Smith hesitated the Rangers forward ran through and blasted the winner home leaving Bartle to face the inquest, albeit he was later to say I would have done exactly the same if i we were in the same situation as we could have lost it as we needed to plug holes as Rangers kept countering and as we had already had enough chances it seemed we were never going to score and so i wanted to make sure didnt concede......sadly it went slightly wrong !