So City reward the splendid 3114 faithful with their biggest win of the season so far - a 4-1 thrashing of a hard working Halifax side on a brisk autumnal afternoon at the Park. City lined up: Rice; Billy Jones, Edwards, Richardson, Woodards; Challinor, Gill, Clay, Taylor; Stansfield, Phillips.
Given an injury list that contained the likes of Todd, Seaborne and Cozic, it was something of a blessing that Rob Edwards was fit enough to partner Richardson at the heart of the defence. However, it was Halifax who started the more brightly and took the game to City. Not much was happening in either goal and most of the action took place in the middle third, but nevertheless City had the first meaningful move of note when Phillips, Taylor and Gill combined to send Woodards away down the right. His low cross was aimed at Phillips but unfortunately a defender got there first and it was blocked for a corner.
Halifax continued to have the upper hand - again without creating anything to trouble Rice - and in the eighteenth minute their industry was rewarded. A run to the box was allowed to continue for far too long before the ball was eased through to Lewis Kileen who made space for himself on the left edge of the box before expertly guiding a low shot past the despairing dive of Rice into the far corner of the net via the post for a deserved 1-0 lead.
This appeared to be just the wake up call City needed, and seven minutes later the game was all square. After a series of corners Andy Taylor floated one to the far post. All the forwards ran to the near post dragging defenders with them leaving Challinor unchaperoned at the back where he had the simplest task of butting home from five yards out to make it 1-1.
Almost immediately City had the chance to nose in front. Taylor sent Phillips scampering down the right and his pull back to Clay was nudged goalwards only to be deflected at the near post for yet another corner.
On the half hour came probably the best move of the game so far: Smart possession at the back from all four defenders eventually led to Gill picking the ball up and sending Stansfield galloping forward chasing a long raking ball to the edge of the box. His shot was well blocked but fell kindly to Taylor following up in acres of space just inside the box. Inexplicably, with the goal at his mercy, Taylor seemed incapable of shooting, instead dallying long enough for defenders to smother his eventual pass to Clay and the chance was gone.
Halifax were clearly rattled, and since the equaliser all of the best stuff came from City. With the half time break looming, the final move of note came from City with good work from Challinor and Phillips on the left setting up Challinor for a low drive from fully 30 yards across the goal that the scrambling keeper did well to push round the post.
But it was soon time for the second half, and once again it was Halifax who started brightest. City mopped it up and soon began to look like the same side who'd stylishly finished off the first half. Ten minutes gone and Clay sent Stansfield away down the right. After skipping over a clumsy attempt at a challenge, he crossed into the box from out wide. Unfortunately Phillips was a bit quicker bustling into the box than he'd anticipated and the ball was played behind him and cleared to safety.
Ten minutes later Taylor smartly intercepted an attempted through ball and charged purposefully into the Halifax half. He eased the ball left to Challinor patrolling the edge of the box but his smart drive was gratefully held to his midriff by the keeper.
Midway through the half Stansfield at last managed to beat the Halifax offside trap and scurried away down the left where his cross was met by Phillips. His shot was cleared but only as far as Gill 25 yards out and his laser guided smash narrowly beat the outside of the post to come cannoning back from the rear stanchion to give the impression of a goal, but unfortunately it was not to be.
Half an hour gone and time for Tisdale to mix it up a bit. The extremely hard working Phillips was withdrawn for Mackie, and ten seconds later City were in the lead. Mackie's first touch of the ball was to burst forward down the left. Driving towards the box, he popped a back heel to the lurking Challinor so delicious it wouldn't have tasted any sweeter had you poured whipped cream over it and stuck a cherry on the top. With the defence bamboozled Challinor flashed a low cross in first time where Stansfield nipped in to poke home at the near post from four yards out to give City a much deserved 2-1 lead.
The action wasn't confined to the Halifax goalmouth however, and in the 40th minute City fans' hearts were in their mouths when a rare Halifax corner was only partially cleared to an attacker stationed on the edge of the box. With players rushing all over the place, his ferocious swerving strike looked for all the world ready to pierce the roof of the net before an unsighted Rice flung out a hand to miraculously tip the ball over to safety.
But all that did was to make City even more determined, and with the final whistle fast approaching the game was finally made safe. Challinor found himself with the ball at his feet just to the left of his own penalty area. He looked up to see no-one near the half way line except Mackie making his way forward. A long launch down field saw Mackie in pursuit, and after neatly sidestepping a despairing defender's slide, he sprinted through on goal. A wonderful shot from the edge of the box beat the keeper and appeared to rebound off the far post. Mackie thought (correctly, as it turned out) that he had scored and that the ball had somehow come back from the side netting, but whilst he desperately tried to convince anyone that would listen, Stansfield remained alert enough to pick up the loose ball, beat a defender and then gleefully smash home from close range to make it all academic anyway and 3-1 to City.
There was still time for more though, and relentless City pressure at the death bought its rewards. Woodards on the right looped a long ball across to Challinor at the far post, and after some smart work to bring the ball under control crashed an unstoppable rocket into the middle of the goal from point blank range to finish it off at 4-1.
Phew! What an ending! At half time it looked as though we would have our work cut out to keep a point. Half way through the first half it looked as though we'd be lucky to get a point at all. But City are nothing if not resilient these days, and they keep battling right to the end - as witnessed by Billy Jones' late, late equaliser at Grays on Tuesday night - and in the end won comfortably simply because they finished fitter and stronger. This bodes well for the long season ahead, as last season the team faded badly after Christmas so hopefully they'll be able to sustain the work rate right through this season.
For the most part Halifax offered much but produced little. Their goal was a little too easily constructed for my liking, but apart from Rice's now customary world class save, the back five had a reasonably easy afternoon. Billy Jones would do well to not hit his own players though when trying to pass, and Danny Woodards spent as much time bombing forwards as he did defending. It was good to see Edwards back in the middle, even though Seaborne and Ada had deputised seamlessly in midweek.
In the middle a welcome start for Danny Clay, promoted to first team duties after some good performances recently in the reserves. Just goes to show the value of having second string matches, and you have to ask yourself why this situation has been so neglected in the recent past. Matt Gill was his usual cool and calm self, with inch perfect passing and good vision to spot the pass. However it was Challinor who stole the show with two good goals and a strong performance down the left. Surely this now puts paid to talk of playing him centrally, as he is, as he was last season, just so much more effective and attacking patrolling the left flank and cutting in to shoot with his right. This was Challinor back to his best today.
Up front at last we had a goal from a striker! But like with buses you wait ages and then there's a bunch of them. Stansfield's toe poke was a typical striker's goal, borne almost entirely of instinct and knowing exactly where the goal and defenders were without needing to look up. The move that led to it was slicker than slug snot - Mackie's run, that wonderful back heel and Challinor's first time cross to exactly where Stansfield was surging. Fantastic. Then we had Mackie's effort, again after a long run but this time electing to shoot himself. Apparently the ball went through the net then came back from some invisible force field, but whatever, it was good to see Stansfield alert enough to follow up and make sure. All good stuff.
And well done to the supporters too. In good voice for much of the game, spurred on by Grecian the Lion's cajoling from the front of the Bastin Stand, numbers were surprisingly high, especially given the 'attraction' of the Exeter Chiefs' local derby with Plymouth Albion at Sandy Park just down the road and also the fact that England's Euro qualifier against Macedonia would kick off a mere fifteen minutes after the final whistle. But the fans know when it's time to stand up and be counted, and today was that day, so perhaps it's no coincidence that the players rewarded them with their biggest romp of the season and manager's Tisdale's best result since taking over the hot seat in the summer.
But there's more to come. Surely the excitement of today and the expectation of Tuesday's match at home to Northwich Victoria should see our best crowd of the season so far. I mean, six games unbeaten, seven points from the last three games, and nine goals in the last three homes games - what more do the team need to do? Nothing, that's what, because we'll be there anyway, cheering them on to more glory. Won't we.
