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Late Heggs strike not enough for Lambs
25 February 2006 Paul Merson grabbed the headlines before The Lambs kicked off against Halifax Town. The former Arsenal, Aston Villa and Middlesborough star came straight in to the starting eleven for Graham Ward with the other change from Tuesday night’s defeat at York being Alan Neilson who replaced Ben Starosta.
But after just 1 minute and 9 seconds Lewis Killeen unmarked in the middle of the box bundled the ball home from close range to give the visitors the lead from a corner. (0-1)
The Lambs forced their first corner of the game on 14, but the Halifax defence cleared and when the ball came back in Merson found himself in an offside position to halt the move.
With Halifax looking to add to their tally Sean Bowles pulled off a reflex save from Martin Foster’s freekick on 18 which squirmed through without a touch.
The Shaymen continued to pressurize without any clear cut chances and as the half went on Tamworth started to get some composure back and on 25 Nick Summerbee let fly from 30 yards on the left of the field but his effort was well wide of the mark.
Ryan Sudgen almost bagged his sides second goal on 28 with a free header in the area which beat Bowles but came back off the post and was cleared by Peter Folkes.
Merson switched places with Matt Williams and Tamworth started to find themselves with more time on the ball and creating more coming forward.
On 33 The Lambs won a free kick 20 yards from goal in the centre of the field following a foul on Danny Davidson which Merson stepped up to take but his curling effort cleared the cross bar by a few inches.
But Tamworth struggled to find a way through a solid Halifax defence until just before half time when Merson floated the ball in from the right wing but it was cut out before Williams could connect.
HT 0-1
The second half started slowly and on 56 Williams had to come off injured being replaced by Carl Heggs
Merson movedinto a wide right position with Heggs and Davidson taking the forward positions but The Lambs struggled to make and meaningful moves forward.
That was until 67 when Heggs found Davidson in the area but the former Stafford Rangers strikers’ shot on the turn went straight into the arms of Jon Kennedy.
Halifax made it 2-0 on 70 minutes after Sugden latched onto a through ball and despite Bowles blocking his effort sub Chris Senior finished easily despite vociferous shouts for offside.
Kileen forced a good save out of Bowles with 5 to go in a rare attack from either side until Carl Heggs fired home in spectacular fashion with a dipping half volley from 30 yards in the 89th minute to give Tamworth some late hope.
Tamworth:
Davidson, Merson
Summerbee (Ward 83), Bampton, Neilson, Williams (Heggs 57)
Roma, Redmile, Folkes, Smith
Bowles
Subs: Stamps, Breedon, Starosta
Halifax Town:
Sugden (Forest 73), Kileen
Bowler (Senior 63), Foster, Thompson, Smikle (Bushell 88)
Doughty, Young, Quinn, Haslam
Kennedy
Subs: Yates, Jacob
Yellow Cards: Foster 83, Kennedy 89, Senior 90
Red Cards:
Goals: Kileen 2, Senior 70, Heggs 89
Att: 1672
MOM: As chosen by sponsors AAC Plastics, Fieldhouse Industrial and JJ Sameday: Matt Redmile
Match Reports
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