Fielding a youthful looking squad having only 5 players who have played 6 games or more AFC went down 4-2 to a decent Grays side last Saturday morning.
After a 3 1/2 hour journey down we got off to the worst possible start when after 14 seconds an under hit pass by the left back put our centre half under pressure and his hurried clearance hit the Grays strikers knee and shot past the stranded AFC keeper. 1-0 And worse was to follow when a 25 yard screamer into the top corner left the AFC goalie with no chance at all. To their credit AFC responded and played some neat football creating several good chances which on another day would have brought goals.
So 2-0 at half time and the gaffer's team talk inspired us as we were quicker out of the blocks having a good spell of possession making further goal scoring opportunities forcing the Grays keeper into some smart saves however it became 3-0 when slack marking from a corner gave a free header to a Grays defender. We switched formation going 3 at the back in an effort to get back into the game and yet again a couple of chances went astray before the sucker punch when Grays made it 4-0 with a neat lob from the edge of the area after the 3 man AFC defence has been caught in no mans land. Again AFC hit back and with two great finishes from Adam Probets brought ourselves back into the game with 10 minutes to go and it was all AFC now with Bish hitting the post and Probets going close twice more but it was not to be and the game ended with a 4-2 victory to Grays.
A creditable performance with all 11 players putting in a good shift and each one able to walk off the field with their head held high. After a long journey down and having just 11 players the effort, commitment and passion were evident for all to see and the performances of some of the younger players augurs well for the future.
Difficult to pick out individual performances but Kev Dawson as captain led by example and special mention too to the Cartman brothers Paul and Scott[keeper] who had sterling games as did James Holland who had probably his best game in an AFC shirt , well done Potter.
In closing AFC Halifax would like to thank the Cartman boys, young Jonny and the "fringe" players John Barnes, Ben Faulkes, Adam Probets and James Holland for travelling down and enabling us to fulfil the fixture, cheers guys you are all stars.

Terry Sunderland