A feisty affair took place last night at the Shay stadium on a cold evening. The game included a goal in the first five minutes with Scott Boden the scorer, a disallowed goal, a red card and some unsavoury scenes at the end of the game.

Town got off to a magnificent start with some clever work on the edge of the box by Scott McManus who’s shot was saved by the Forest Green keeper, the ball rebounded out but a Halifax man got onto the end of it, he slipped a ball through to Scott Boden who simply tapped in for his ninth in the league on the 5 minute mark.

Forest Green are a side though that wanted to at least get something from the game, and the worst time for a team to concede are just after they’ve scored and so Forest Green produced a great chance to get them straight back into it. However Matt Glennon produced a fantastic save and kept the score 1-0.

Town then decided to just go all-out attack and bombarded the Forest Green goal.  Paul Marshall having the first attempt on the Forest Green goal with a powerful driving shot which the Forest  Green keeper got fully behind and stopped the ball in its tracks. The Shaymen kept the pressure on and moments later the ball was in the back of the net, when Marc Roberts powered a header past the stunned Forest Green keeper. Everyone in the ground including myself and the nineteen Forest Green fans that turned up thought it was in. However the one man that didn’t was the referee who disallowed the goal saying that he thought Roberts had pushed his man in the back to get to the header.

Both teams carried on having chances with Forest Green having a glorious chance to level with James Norwood missing his chance and keeping Town in front.

Halftime came and the majority of fans thought that Town had got the goods to see it through but Forest Green looked dangerous on the break with a quick attack and strong striker in Jon Parkin.

Forest Green started the second half the brighter and looked like Halifax had taken a nap during half time. Forest Green’s Guthrie hit a superb curling shot which hit the post, Parkin followed up with a header but Glennon made a superb fingertip save.  Both teams had numerous chances but none prevailed and the score stayed the same.

Glennon was then called up on again to keep the Shaymen in the lead when Scott McManus brought down James Norwood for Forest Green in the box for what looked like a certain penalty, the referee agreed and Norwood who was to have a mad next ten minutes stepped up to take the penalty but couldn’t beat the magnificent Glennon who made a superb stop and the Shaymen could breathe again.

A late challenge by Norwood on McManus saw the Forest Green man take an early shower, both benches were angry however the referee even though he had a poor game made the correct decision.

By this time Halifax were confident of the win and although there was five minutes added on time they rode through them with ease as it was hard for the Forest Green team to cope with out their influential player.

As the referee blew the final whistle there were disgraceful scenes with both staff and players from both sides involved, Forest Green obviously felt incensed by some of the decisions made on the pitch by the referee and some of the players decided to take it into their own hands with punches flying left, right and centre. These are not the kind of scene’s we want to see in football after such a great win for Halifax.

The win moves Halifax up to sixth and moves Forest Green down to ninth. Next up for the Shaymen is a long trip to Torquay next Tuesday evening.