Bolton earns point for managerless Halifax

If Halifax could take little encouragement from their point on Saturday, they could take nothing but positives from this.

For a team without a manager and one win so far this season, their whole-hearted display offered much to be admired but also begged the question of where this kind of performance had been hiding before now.

In front of Halifax’s lowest gate of the season, The Shaymen looked like a different outfit to the one that laboured to a draw against 10-man Southport just three days previously.

When Halifax were awarded a penalty, their second in two games, for a rash challenge by goalkeeper Sam Russell on Sean Tuton, it appeared just reward. But Jordan Burrow’s shot crashed back off the bar.

Despite an impressive first 20 minutes, Halifax found themselves behind though when Jon Shaw nodded in from Jordan Cranston’s cross.

Halifax forced three corners inside the first seven minutes of the restart, one after a barnstorming run by Julian Banton, and from the third, James Bolton delivered a bullet header past Sam Russell.

Halifax: Glennon, Bolton, Banton, Brown, McManus, Roberts, James, Bencherif (Macdonald 89), Walker (Racchi 73), Tuton, Burrow (Hattersley 78). Unused substitutes: Porter, Brooks.

Gateshead: Russell, Baxter, Clark, Ramsden, Pattison (Ramshaw 81), Phillips, Chandler (McLaughlin 72), Buddle, Cranston, Bowman, Shaw (Marwood 58). Unused substitutes: Mafuta, MacDonald.

Referee: K Evans (Lancashire).