Lack-lustre Blues let it slip
Grays’ lead at the top of the Conference was pegged back to two points on Saturday when Halifax Town held them to a disappointing draw at the New Rec.
Whether it was a case of tiredness, following their midweek exertions against Dagenham & Redbridge, or even mental fatigue, after a tiring of high-octane game, Blues were never at the races against their Yorkshire opponents and a point was all their performance merited.
After a pedestrian start, Lee Matthews celebrated his return to the starting XI by putting the home side in front, shortly before the interval, but the Shaymen responded strongly and substitute John Grant nodded home a deserved equaliser 13 minutes into the second half.
Jamie Slabber had a great chance to win it for the home side late on but his shot across goal, after he had been released by Dennis Oli, pinged back off the far post and into the grateful arms of Town keeper, Ian Dunbavin.
It would have been no surprise if Slabber’s shot had nestled in the far corner – Grays have secured eight points form goals inside the last five minutes already this campaign – but, as Blues boss, Mark Stimson, admitted, a win would have glossed over a lacklustre performance.
”We didn’t play well today,” he said. “Maybe the Dagenham game took a lot out of us I don’t know, but we never got our passing going and there was a little bit of a lack of desire for the first time this season.
”The boys have reached a high standard this season and they are going to have to try and live up to that.
”Having said that if someone had you will get a point at home to Halifax and have 26 points after 12 games at the start of the season then I would have taken that and that’s a credit to the way we have started.”
Stimson made one enforced switch from the midweek game against Dagenham, with Matthews replacing the injured Jamie Stuart, but other than that Blues were unchanged and that showed in the opening exchanges when they looked a little leg weary.
Stevland Angus made a fabulous last-ditch intervention to deny the dithering Ryan Sugden a shot on goal and Danny Forrest scuffed a shot into Nicky Eyre as the Shaymen threatened early on.
But chances were very much at a premium and it was through Grays’ first shot in anger that they took the lead.
After a powerful run down the win, Slabber won a corner on the right and then managed to get on the end of Glenn Poole’s kick himself, heading it back across goal for Matthews to side foot home from close range.
Boosted by the goal the home side could and perhaps should have doubled that advantage before the interval with Slabber and Stuart Thurgood both wasting good opportunities.
Slabber should have squared the ball to either Poole or Oli, after again escaping down the right, but instead fired across goal and Thurgood struck weakly into Dunbavin having been setup nicely by the increasingly influential Oli.
Those misses proved costly after the interval as Halifax stepped up their game. Twice Forrest went close from the edge of the box before a sweeping move involving Wayne Jacobs, Lewis Kileen and Matt Doughty culminated in an unmarked Grant nodding home at the back post.
Stimson, who had already brought on John Martin, next turned to Michael Kightly in an effort to change the game but neither he nor Martin could make much of an impact.
It wasn’t until Gary Hooper was introduced, with 14 minutes to go, that Grays began to turn things in Grays’ favour.
But not before Chris Senior had wasted a glorious opportunity to win the game for the Shaymen when he failed to make the most of a Matthews slip and lobbed into the grateful arms of Eyre.
Hooper then created a chance of Oli with a towering header that the ex QPR man couldn’t divert towards goal and Oli setup Slabber for the chance that rebounded off the post.
Even after that miss, Kightly could have still won it for Blues but he headed tamely wide from a precise cross from Thurgood as Blues finished the stronger.
Afterwards Stimson agreed a point was a fair result and said he was pleased his side got something out of the game despite playing so far below their best. “It can’t be a bad thing when you’re not playing well and still picking up points,” he said. “We’re going to come up against that a few more times this season I think and the boys will have to dig in, which , in fairness, they did today”.
Report by Ryan Goad
Thanks to the Thurrock Gazette for the match report
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