FC Halifax Town 1 Gateshead 1: Bolton nets point for managerless Shaymen

If Town 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 Town’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 Town were awarded a penalty, their second in two games, for a rash challenge by goalkeeper Sam Russell on Sean Tuton, it appeared just reward for their excellent start.

But Jordan Burrow’s shot crashed back off the bar.

Despite an impressive first 20 minutes, Town found themselves behind though when Jon Shaw nodded in after Jordan Cranston’s cross was flicked on by Ryan Bowman.

Town 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, who scored twice in the 2-2 draw with Gateshead at The Shay last season, delivered a bullet header past Sam Russell.

FC Halifax: Glennon, Roberts, Brown, Bolton, Banton, McManus, James, Bencherif, Walker, Tuton, Burrow. Subs: Porter, Hattersley, MacDonald, Racchi, Brooks.

Gateshead: Russell, Baxter, Clark, Buddle, Cranston, Phillips, Chandler, Ramsden, Pattison, Shaw, Bowman. Subs: Marwood, Ramshaw, Mafuta, MacDonald, McLaughlin.

Referee: Karl Evans (Lancashire)

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