Chris Wilder was forced to make several changes to the side that had beaten Burton at the Shay last Tuesday. Missing was Steve Haslam, who picked a flu bug, and Steve Bushell who suffered a thigh injury in midweek. Chris Clarke and Gordon Chin were brought in as replacements.

Morecambe made more progress in the opening encounters but failed to really trouble Ian Dunbavin. It took them until the 21^st minute to register a shot on target and it was aimed straight at the Town stopper.

At the other end the Shaymen had to wait until just after the half hour mark for their opening effort. Darren Mansaram won the ball in midfield and ran a few paces with it before attempting to lob keeper Adam Sollitt. However, his enterprise didn't pay off and the ball went narrowly over. A couple of minutes later Ryan Sugden was booked, rather harshly, after winning the ball from Sollit with what looked like a perfectly fair challenge.

On 36 Minutes Mansaram threatened again. This time he was wide on the right and fed the ball into Chin whose 20 yard shot was well saved by Sollitt. Just before half time Clarke fired in a powerful header from Martin a Foster corner, but before reaching the target the ball hit Mansaram and was cleared by the home defence.

Straight after the break Mansaram was again in the thick of the action. He was fouled out on the left and from the resultant free kick nodded the ball goal bound only to see it cleared off the line. It only went as far as Foster who sent in another cross which this time was met by the head of Sugden before being brilliantly tipped around the post by Sollitt.

Morecambe hit back on 59 minutes through Gary Hunter but Dunbavin easily saved his 20 yard shot. He then fed the ball straight to substitute Dean Howell whose surging run was stopped when he was upended on the halfway line by Chris Blackburn. The appalling nature of the challenge had the Town bench on their feet in protest and earned Howell's former colleague a yellow card, his 3^rd in 5 games, when perhaps a red one was more appropriate.

The home side opened the scoring on 73 minutes but had to rely on a touch of good fortune to do so. Howell intercepted a left wing cross but steered the ball into the path of Michael Twiss. At the second attempt, Twiss prodded the ball past Dunbavin from close range.

The hosts pushed for a second to secure the points but efforts from Kempson and Walmsley failed to trouble Dunbavin. However they made sure of their victory with a minute left on the clock when Twiss fired home from the penalty spot after Clarke handled a Jamie Heard cross.

Town pulled one back in the dying moments, also from the penalty spot. Substitute Craig Midgely provided the finish after Adam Quinn had been fouled in the box. This proved to be the last action of the game.

It was a tight well balanced game and Halifax will disappointed to be returning from Christie Park emptied handed after putting in what was undoubtedly a solid team performance.

Match Stats