Richard Marshall: Halifax overcame adversity against London
Halifax coach Richard Marshall felt that his side overcame plenty of adversity after they defeated London 26-16 at The Shay.
Halifax were down to just 11 players midway through the first half after Brandon Moore and Ben Johnston were shown yellow cards but fought back to score three times in the final seven minutes of the first period.
Marshall was also dealt blows when Ben Kaye suffered an injury in the warm-up and Simon Grix was forced off injured in the second half.
“That’s probably one of the most pleasing aspects of today, when you overcome adversity,” Marshall said.
“Then we came through the other side of that and actually scored a couple of points off the back of that.”
“Before kick-off, we lost Ben Kaye with an Achilles problem, literally a minute before kick-off.
“We lost Simon (Grix) midway through the second-half with an ankle injury. If you combine that into it, considering we also lost the penalty count heavily as well, to come out of the other side of that is really good.”
Winger Conor McGrath scored the pick of the afternoon’s tries, spectacularly grounding a kick wide from captain Scott Murrell in the right corner.
“Scott Murrell has got a wonderful kicking game and he executed that one which took some scoring,” Marshall continued.
“Conor is a young lad that’s been with us for a couple of years. He’s another one that’s come through our system, which we’re really proud about.”
“We could have used other people today but Conor certainly warranted his inclusion today and he was fantastic.”
Marshall also was full of praise for the club’s support, feeling the atmosphere they created gave the team an extra lift throughout the game.
“I thought the fans were on side today and they really helped us and that’s something that we mentioned it at half-time,” Marshall added.
“Everyone wants to create a daunting place to go as your home ground. I thought the fans were good today and I think they lads deserved that for the efforts that they put in against a full-time team.”
“There is a lot to sing about and a lot to shout about, but we’ve been here before. We need our best week in training this week and to bring that in next week because otherwise what we’ve done out there will be irrelevant.”