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FA Cup: A striking concern for Halifax cup draw
Match action from Harrogate Town v Hyde FC.
HALIFAX TOWN and Bradford Park Avenue are both through to the first round of the FA Cup with the Shaymen handed a dream draw at home to League One leaders Charlton Athletic.
But while Halifax boss Neil Aspin is delighted with the glamour tie, a big concern is in finding strikers fit enough to take on the Addicks.
Halifax booked their place in yesterday’s draw with a 1-0 success at Solihull Moors on Saturday as Danny Holland got the only goal of the game but Holland remains troubled with a knee injury.
And Saturday’s victory also came at a cost with leading scorer Lee Gregory limping off with a hamstring injury with Aspin set to learn the extent of the damage this week.
James Dean will also be suspended when Charlton visit the Shay for a game likely to be televised on the weekend of November 12 and 13 and while delighted with the glamour Addicks draw, a lack of fire-power is now troubling Aspin’s mind.
“It’s a fantastic draw and that’s my first thought – about what a great draw it is and how it is good for the football club and good for the town,” he said.
“It’s a great draw because if you get to the first round of the FA Cup I think it’s fair to say you want to draw a big club and we have got a team who used to be in the Premier League at home.
“There will be no pressure as nobody will expect us to go through.
“But my second thought is of who is going to be playing and if we played the game now I wouldn’t have any strikers.
“Something is going to have to happen there.”
Joining the Shaymen in the first round proper on Saturday were John Deacey’s Bradford Park Avenue who eased through their final qualifying round tie with a 2-0 success at Kidsgrove Athletic.
Second-half strikes from James Beadle on 56 and 86 minutes settled the tie and handed Avenue an away trip to AFC Totton who are second in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier – a division the same level as the EvoStik Northern Premier.
Boss Deacey admits he would readily have preferred a glamour game to look forward to but the Avenue manager is looking on the positive side.
“We were a little bit disappointed about the draw but the draw is the draw and you can’t do anything about it can you?” he said.
“At least with this game we will have a chance of getting through to second round perhaps though it’s a long way to go – on the south coast near Southampton.”
York City, though, failed to join Halifax and Avenue in Sunday’s draw after falling to a 2-1 defeat at Wrexham after on own goal by David McGurk proved decisive.
Wrexham took a 50th minute lead when Nat Knight-Percival headed home Joe Clarke’s free-kick from near the corner flag following Adriano Moke’s silly foul.
Patrick McLaughlin equalised five minutes later, cracking home a 25-yard free kick after Michael Potts had been tripped. A draw looked on the cards until the 61st minute when Andy Morrell crossed low for McGurk, to turn the ball past Ingham.
Mills said: “We couldn’t string two passes together in the first half when we gave away too many fouls, which presented Wrexham with chances to put the ball into our penalty area.
“We improved after the break and I felt we were worthy of a replay until the unlucky own goal.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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