After an uninspiring first half this penultimate pre-season game finally came to life midway through the second period so read our match report sponsored by BuildADrive.com to see how the Shaymen triumphed 2-1.
Both sides looked as though they couldn’t wait for the serious competitive stuff to start in a first half in which neither keeper was seriously troubled.
Jake Day put a header just wide of the post early on for Guiseley and the striker had a shot blocked as the clock counted down to halftime.
A brilliant free kick delivered into the six yard box by Brad Nicholson deserved a response from the home side but none was forthcoming.
For their part Halifax had played some neat football without really making any impact and the Trialist between the sticks for the Lions mopped up any threats with relative ease.
After both sides had upped the ante he was however seriously tested after the restart, but pulled of a great stop to deny the visitors and was eventually replaced by Hagie Damba on the hour.
One of Damba’s first tasks was to pick the ball out of the net on 71 minutes after Martin Wood had sent the youngster the wrong way from the spot following an infringement in the Guiseley area.
Ten minutes later the Lions were threatened again but managed to clear the ball off the line, however, within two minutes the Halifax Trialist wearing number 9 had doubled their lead with a low shot from the edge of the area.
Guiseley talisman Kaine Felix halved the deficit on 85 minutes when his powerful header from Lewis Hey’s pinpoint cross flew past Sam Johnson.
But with just five minutes remaining the game petered out without either side adding to the scoreline.
Russ O’Neill and Jake Day’s post match thoughts
Attendance: 420
Team:
1-A Trialist (62′ Damba), 2-Ollie Brown, 3-Brad Nicholson (76′ A.Trialist), 4-Prince Ekpolo (79′ Spencer), 5-Hamza Bencherif, 6-A Trialist, 7-Kaine Felix, 8-George Cantrill, 9-Jake Day, 10-Lebrun Mbeka (76’Haw) and 11-Lewis Hey
Subs:
18-Jamie Spencer, 13-Hagie Damba (GK), 14-Oli Metcalfe, 15-Jake Charles, 16-Adam Haw, 17-A Trialist and 1-Declan Lambton.
