F.C. Halifax Town

FC Halifax Town

Full name	Football Club Halifax Town
Nickname(s)	The Shaymen
Founded	2008
Ground	The Shay, Halifax, West Yorkshire (Capacity: 6,600 (2,330 seated Reduced due to building work)
Chairman	David Bosomworth [1]
Manager	Neil Aspin [2]
League	Northern Premier League Division One North
2008–09	Northern Premier League Division One North, 8th
Home colours Away colours

Football Club Halifax Town, otherwise known as FC Halifax Town are an English football team currently playing in the Northern Premier League Division One North. The club replaced Halifax Town A.F.C. who went into administration during the 2007-08 season.

History

Formation

Huge tax debts buried Halifax Town after almost 100 years as a football club. New figures put to a reconvened creditors meeting in May 2008 showed the cash-strapped Shaymen owed over £800,000 to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Revenue refused any deal and that effectively finished the club – already over £2 million in the red.^[3] Administrators had been trying to broker a rescue package but speaking after five hours of talks that left liquidation near inevitable, administrator Rob Sadler said: "Halifax Town will probably perish." It was originally thought the club owed the taxman around £500,000, which might have left scope for a deal. But the news that it owed £814,000 meant that even if all the other creditors had accepted the 2.5p-in-the-pound offer originally on the table it would not have been enough.^[4]

At a meeting of the Football Association, discussing the makeup of the football pyramid for the 2008/09 season, Halifax Town were not placed in either the Conference National, the Conference North or the Northern Premier League Premier Division. Halifax appealed against the decision to remove them from the Football Conference.^[5] Though the appeal was rejected on June 11, the hope was that Halifax could play in the NPL Premier Division.^[6] This did not materialise, and eventually Halifax Town were accepted to play in the Northern Premier League Division One North in the new season under the new name F.C. Halifax Town.^[7]

2008-09

The club's first game under the new name FC Halifax Town was a friendly away against Tamworth FC on 19 July 2008. There was to be no fairytale ending however, and the game ended in a 2-0 defeat. The club's first ever victory was against Alsager Town on 26 July, 2008 by a 2-0 scoreline. Colin Hunter will be credited as the scorer of the new club's first ever goal after six minutes. Their first competitive Northern League Division One North match was at The Shay against Bamber Bridge FC on 16 August, 2008, however the game resulted in a 3-0 loss for the Shaymen.

The club got off to a poor start, despite recording their first competitive victory in the next match. However, a 7-1 home win against Salford City in late September seemed to turn the tide for Town. They went on an 8-game unbeaten run, 7 of those being victories, and shot to the top of the league table. The run eventually came to an end against Rossendale United, who ended up doing the league double over Halifax and finishing the season bottom of the table.

Despite the loss, Halifax remained top and more good results, including 5-1 and 4-1 victories against Garforth Town and Wakefield FC respectively, kept their promotion hopes alive. After the Wakefield match however, Halifax won just 2 of their final 14 league games, the wins coming against Harrogate Railway Athletic and Clitheroe FC, both 2-1. The automatic promotion places were certainly out of Halifax's reach going into the final 5 games, but the club needed to win a minimum of 3 of these final 5 games to have any chance of reaching the play-offs. They could only manage 2 draws and so a poor ending to the season cost them dearly, and they had to settle for a final position of 8th.

Players

As of 27 December 2009.

Current squad

No. Position Player GK Phil Senior GK Jonathan Hedge DF Dan Codman DF Paul Sykes DF James Riley DF Ryan Crossley DF Neil Aspin (Player-Manager) DF Steve Payne DF Mark Hotte DF Danny Lowe DF Aaron Hardy MF Tom Baker MF Nicky Gray MF Scott Phelan MF Mark Peers FW James Dean FW Richard Marshall FW Luke Dean (on loan from Bradford City)

Club Officials

Current Staff

Boardroom

• President: Robert Holmes
• Chairman: David Bosomworth
• Directors: Bobby Ham & Stuart Peacock

Management

• Player-Manager: Neil Aspin
• Assistant Manager: Trevor Storton
• Physio: Alan Russell-Cox
• Fitness Co-ordinator: Ian Helliwell
• Club Mascot: Freddy the Fox

Performance

League Standings

FA Cup

FA Trophy

West Riding County Cup

Unibond League Challenge Cup

Unibond League Presidents Cup

Rivals

According to a survey conducted in 2003, Halifax's three main rivals are:^[8]

• Burnley F.C.
• Rochdale F.C.
• Huddersfield Town

Reference is made to their rivalry with Burnley F.C. and Rochdale F.C. in their football chant 'I am a Shaymen fan'. Considering that Halifax is in West Yorkshire it is surprising that two of the three main rivals are from another county. It is also very surprising to know that Burnley are 7 levels above Halifax, Huddersfield 5 levels above and Rochdale 4 levels above, but the history of Halifax Town A.F.C. is what brings the Burnley and Rochdale rivalry. The Huddersfield rivalry is due to the close proximity of the clubs.

Notes

External links

• Official site
• ShaymenOnline.org (statistics archive)
• Independent Messageboard
• Freddy the Fox (club mascot) website
• Halifax Town Supporters' Trust
• FC Halifax v Silsden in the FA Cup Watch highlights of the match played 30/08/08