Financial fears loom after Halifax Town fail big screen test

Should Halifax be playing until then, it is debatable as to whether they would find the net in that time.

Grumbles and frustrations aside following an insipid performance from Halifax – whose goal drought in open play extended to five games – at least we can cherish one thing from Saturday.

This game represented normality and in these increasingly troubled times, you cannot have enough of that.

There was not much warmth in Halifax’s rare moment in the sun – with The Shay being the venue for the only football match staged in front of spectators to be screened live across Europe, let alone the United Kingdom, on Saturday.

But it is nice to moan about something as part of your routine and it is positively healthy. How people will miss that as football self-isolates in the weeks ahead, with the National League to pull up the drawbridge and follow other leagues in suspending fixtures very shortly amid the stony grip of coronavirus.

The football-specific gripes surrounded Ebbsfleet’s soft early opener with recalled defender Jerome Binnom-Williams seeing his pocket picked down Halifax’s left by lively substitute Tomi Adeloye, who set up one-time Shaymen target Gozie Ugwu for the only goal of the game on 16 minutes, a crisp low finish celebrated by Ebbsfleet’s merry band of 52 travelling supporters.

Halifax’s propensity to treat the ball like a hot potato and surrender possession at unfathomable junctures added to the collective sense of angst as this occasion wore on ahead of home fans heading into the night and The Shay turning off the lights.

If this was football’s final competitive fixture across its top six divisions for some time, it was an inauspicious send-off in front of a televised audience from across the continent.

Halifax huffed and puffed, but the quality count was low. A few flashes from Jack Redshaw aside, the hosts wholly lacked wit and Ebbsfleet were deserving of their victory.

Halifax manager Pete Wild, whose side could have moved to within two points of third-placed Notts County with victory, said: “It was frustrating because there was everybody watching.

“It puts the National League on the map and it is great as there are some excellent players and teams in this league.

“I said: ‘go out and show what good footballers you are’ and we dominated the ball for 80 per cent. But in that final third, we were not ruthless or clinical enough.

“Ultimately, if you dominate both boxes, you win football matches and if you don’t, you don’t. That is it in a nutshell.

“The importance of getting the first goal in this league is massive. Generally, if you get the first goal, you either draw or win. We know the importance of that and to make a massive error and offer them a goal is highly frustrating.

“The lad (Binnom-Williams) stuck his hand up in there, fair play to him. We all make mistakes in football and you crack on.”

It was a bad day at the office for Halifax and food for thought for Ebbsfleet manager Kevin Watson as well.

The ex-Rotherham United midfielder admitted that he did not want this game to take place beforehand. He headed north with a certain amount of foreboding. He left with three points in the satchel and a sense of relief that this National League meeting took place after all.

Now the real battle is likely to kick in as clubs like Halifax and Ebbsfleet cope with the fact that their income streams are likely to be cut for a spell as football locks down and stadiums put the shutters up.

Wild, speaking for many in the lower divisions, said: “We are going to struggle, aren’t we and you saw the stuff on TV from League One and League Two clubs on Saturday morning.

“We are in the same boat if not worse and we need cash-flow through the doors to sustain what we do here. The chairman backs the club excellently, but even he has a limit and he needs finances coming in the club to pay the wages. It would be catastrophic if we stop playing.

“It is a unique situation and we are all learning as businesses and organisations what the right course of action is. We are going to make mistakes and get things wrong, but we have to find ways to make sure that clubs survive.

“We have got to take opinions out of it and look and follow facts and not opinion, which is tough in football as everyone has got an opinion.

“It pays the bills and we are paid professionals and have got to keep going.”

So until the next time...