West Riding County Cup third round: Silsden 3 FC Halifax Town 1

SILSDEN recorded a memorable victory in last night’s West Riding County Cup third-round tie against National League neighbours FC Halifax Town, but after two games in as many days, the Shaymen’s side was almost unrecognisable.

Halifax had played an FA Trophy third-qualifying round replay on Tuesday night and lost to lower-ranked Matlock Town, so their starting XI for last night was mainly made up of players from their under-18 and under-21 squads.

They were captained by the experienced Danny Hone, who was making his comeback from injury.

Despite the tender age of the Shaymen’s side, they began well, with Elliott Harrison and Shiraz Khan troubling the home defence before Ousman Cham broke the deadlock in the 11th minute.

The Cobbydalers were on the back foot for most of the first half but they created a few half-chances and defended very well.

The second half was in total contrast, due in a large part to the substitution of Hone at the interval.

With his leadership taken out of the equation, the young Halifax side folded and the club exited a second knockout competition in the space of two days.

Will Storrie set the home side’s comeback in motion when he netted a low shot from the edge of the area past Town’s former Albion Sports keeper Kyle Trenerry.

Ten minutes later, Trenery was beaten again as Kyle Hancock whipped in a dipping free-kick from just outside the area.

The Cobbydalers’ progress into the next round was sealed in the 63rd minute when they opened up a two-goal lead.

Storrie sent in a cross that Danny Riley seemed to turn in at the back post but the ball had come off Shaymen’s defender Isaac Baldwin.

Silsden ran the clock down to see out their win, and their boss, former Halifax striker Danny Forrest, had his own theories about the game of two halves.

He revealed: “We said nothing to the players at half-time.

“Some of the lads were frustrated about the first-half performance and they sorted things out themselves. All of the hard work had been done on the training ground.”