Town lose out to title chasers

A record breaking home league crowd of over 500 saw Warrington Town go down 1-3 to title chasing AFC Halifax Town.
For the opening half hour the former football league outfit completely outclassed a patched up Warrington Town team missing several first-team regulars through injury, suspension and illness.
Warrington were on the back foot for much of the first half and were lucky to still be on level terms after half an hour as the visitors squandered numerous chances.
Nicky Gray eventually broke the deadlock on the half hour and seven minutes later James Riley made it 2-0 to the visitors.
Warrington managed to get to the break without conceding again and looked a different team in the second half as they battled back.
On 75 minutes Gavin Salmon clawed back a goal and shortly afterwards hit the post as Warrington went in search of an unlikely draw.
But five minutes from time Halifax’s prolific goal scorer James Dean lobbed Town keeper Ben Connett to seal the points.
Manager Joey Dunn remained upbeat after the game.
“Considering we had a patched up team the boys battled back well in the second half.”
Town were missing three central defenders, with skipper Mike Tomlinson and Tom Hardwick sidelined with knee injuries and Levi Kennedy completing his suspension.
They were also missing striker Tony Evans through illness.
Meanwhile Tomlinson is hoping to be back in action in about three weeks and is training to strengthen his damaged knee.
He issued a rallying call to fans saying: “We will be trying for the play-offs until it is mathematically impossible.
“At the moment we are just in one of those seasonal blips. Unfortunately it has come at a key time in our season. I can reassure you that the team are trying hard to stem the flow at the moment but it is just not coming off on the pitch.
“Please do stick with us – I realise that the team are doing better than last year but we are not happy with where we are at the moment and should be higher – but unfortunately football is not that straight forward.
“There has been improvements on last year but we want more!”
The defeat saw Warrington slip to 11th in the league table but a win at strugglers Salford on Saturday could see them leap back up to 8th.
They now face a run of four games on the road, the toughest being a trip to Colwyn Bay next Tuesday when they will be hoping it will be 4th time lucky after three previous postponements.
Pictures show the barmy army in full voice and the hard working Mike Grogan who was kept busy in defence and below goal scorer Gavin Salmon.

For a slide show of pictures on the image above.

Town: Connett, Hadland, Toone, Duffy, Grogan, Taylor (Rutter, 64), McCarthy, O’Donnell, Chetcuti, Salmon, Gahgan, subs not used: Dutton, Roberts, Brown, Kinsey