Halifax discover lightning can strike twice
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Your support makes all the difference.At least Halifax knew what to expect when they were relegated from the Nationwide League yesterday. But that still did not dull the pain of becoming the first club in history to be relegated from the League to the Conference twice.
A 5-0 defeat to Darlington was a depressingly familiar scoreline for the Shaymen, but it seemed that their Bank Holiday afternoon was not to be totally ruined by relegation. That was until Sergio Ommel's winner for Bristol Rovers, with two minutes left of their game against Kidderminster, banished Halifax to an unenviable footnote in League history.
Halifax were first relegated in 1993 and spent five years in the Conference before clawing their way back into the League in 1998. Yesterday, that effort proved to be in vain as the club formed in 1911 bowed to the inevitable.
It did not take long for Halifax's day to have that feeling of doom when Ian Clark scored for Darlington after just 10 minutes. Six minutes later, it got worse when Matthew Clarke was sent off for handling the ball. The resulting penalty from Clark merely rubbed the salt in some very deep wounds. There was little solace over at the Memorial Ground either where Bristol Rovers, the only club Halifax could possibly catch mathematically, had taken the lead through a James Quinn penalty after five minutes.
Halifax dug deep and held Darlington to two until half-time and with Kidderminster levelling in Bristol through Drewe Broughton, at least the Shaymen looked like being spared the shame until another day.
Darlington, though, were in no mood for sentiment and goals for Barry Conlon, Mark Ford and Mark Sheeran inflicted on Halifax their second successive 5-0 defeat.
All that remained was Ommel's late strike for Rovers and Halifax were back in the Conference after four seasons. "Shaymen 'til we die," the faithful sang at Feethams as their team trudged off. With the Conference waiting and the club up for sale it was hard for an outsider to understand why.
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