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Hope dies as Halifax prepare to slip away quietly
IT was like being the sole mourner at a pauper's internment; life went on all around but the patient had gone and – just as with the unloved Eleanor Rigby – nobody came.
Despite suggestions yesterday that discussions were still going on with a prospective purchaser, Halifax Town are essentially dead and to walk down Hunger Hill yesterday morning to what used to be the home of a proud Football League club was to undertake a lonely pilgrimage.
There were no defiantly-worded placards or supermarket-wrapped bouquets of blue-and-white flowers Sellotaped to the yellow gates. Two groundsmen perched on their mowers, cutting lush grass which it would seem is unlikely to ever again feel a football passing over it, only the clomp of scrum, tackle and play-the-ball. The public address system cackled all the while, berating those who had dared stay away as Halifax Town ebbed ever closer to the fate which all the town knew was coming and too few cared.
The skeleton of red girders which, it is hoped, will soon support the new stand along the bottom side of the ground are unmoved by the collapse of one of the two clubs who stood to benefit from its arrival, bringing new customers and a little pride back to the sunken old stadium which has been home to "The Shaymen" for 97 years.
Now Halifax Rugby Football League Club – an organisation not without financial struggles of its own in the recent past – will be sole tenants of the Shay; football has all-but gone and with it one of the town's claims to fame.
A man keenly aware of the prestige Town brought to Halifax is John Furbisher, the Editor of the Evening Courier. "Having a football club was one of those things which helped put the town on the map," he says. "Even in the Conference, having your results read out on TV and radio makes people take notice. Without that, this is less of a town.
"We still have the rugby league club and they seem to be saying 'we'll plough on and complete the stand without the football club'. The loss of Halifax Town must make economic life more difficult for the rugby league club but they say they have a plan . . .
"Even last Friday, when the end was inevitable, people still thought, Micawber-like, that something or someone would turn up and save the club. No doubt Halifax Town will live on with the supporters starting a Phoenix club. A new Halifax will have to start a long way down the pyramid but Bradford Park Avenue did that and they have just enjoyed a promotion season."
As ever when a professional football club goes out of business questions are asked without hope of answers and suspicion festers. Why, the question was asked more than once yesterday by people in the town – none of whom would venture their name or even declare themselves Town supporters, closet or otherwise – did the Inland Revenue allow the club to run up a debt to them of over 800,000?
How could it be, they also asked, that a club which only two years ago was within 10 minutes of a return to the Football League through the Conference play-off final has now had to close its books and its door?
Only those in charge know how costly the defeat to Hereford at the Walkers Stadium was in 2006. Players, fans and management no doubt look on with envy as their victors on that fateful day plan for next season in League One having secured a further promotion.
There is remarkably little complaint at the efforts of Chris Wilder, the uncomplaining manager for the last six years and a man widely regarded as one who did surprisingly well given the terrible cards he was dealt.
But apathy hangs over Halifax like a shroud. Walking the streets there is no sign that a football club existed only a few days ago. There are no replica shirts in blue-and-white stripes, just the odd grimy white Leeds United from the glory days of Ridsdale and O'Leary, an occasional England in red-white-and blue and a few, champion grins attached, in Manchester United's red.
Memories remain of the day Manchester City were beaten at the Shay in the FA Cup, of promotion under Alan Ball, the father of England's World Cup hero, and, most recently, the return to the Football League under George Mulhall after winning the Conference championship a decade ago when the unsubtle, fearless Geoff Horsfield was the goal-scoring hero with 30 in 40 matches.
That climb was quickly followed by another plunge and in 2002 the unwanted label of being the first club to be relegated twice to the Conference. The words of committal – as if they were needed – came with yesterday's announcement by the administrator that the club's debts were "insurmountable"
Through it all there were those in Halifax who insisted that the town had always been – and would remain – a rugby stronghold.
John Furbisher can see their point but puts a counter argument. There are enough football followers in Halifax to support a local team, he suggests. The problem has been that too many of them seek their entertainment at Old Trafford, Elland Road or, whisper it, Huddersfield Town.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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