By Isaac Moulds | Image by Matthew Appleby
City drew 1-1 against Halifax at the LNER Community Stadium in the Vanarama National League on Saturday evening.
Neal Ardley made three changes to the XI that lost to Chesterfield on Tuesday, with George Sykes-Kenworthy making his debut between the sticks to replace Rory Watson, and Olly Green also had his first appearance in Minstermen colours in place of Olly Dyson. The third change saw Aiden Marsh come in for Scott Burgess.
Within the first ten minutes, City were flying into challenges, including a last-ditch tackle from Tyler Cordner to deny the visitors the first shot of the game.
After twenty minutes, City had their first big chance of the game with Lenell John-Lewis meeting Ryan Fallowfield’s cross with his head but it was straight into Sam Johnson’s arms.
City earnt their first corner of the game having played just shy of 24 minutes which was taken short, then whipped in by Alex Woodyard who saw his cross bobble around in the box, before Cordner’s volley was hit over.
For the next ten minutes, both teams had well-worked opportunities but neither side could find the clinical finish.
Following a few offsides from the Minstermen, the visitors had the best chance of the game with a neat string of passes down the right, but the final shot was wide of Sykes-Kenworthy’s goal.
Halifax came out the better team in the second half, and after sustained pressure, Florent Hoti had a left-footed strike from the edge of the box, which flew into the top right corner to give Halifax the lead with 49 minutes played.
City responded well to going one down, with a well-worked move ending in the skipper John-Lewis shooting just wide of the target.
Marsh then did well down the right as he got his shot off, which was saved and turned behind for a corner.
The 61st minute saw a double change for the Minstermen with Quevin Castro and Burgess coming on for Marsh and Kai Kennedy.
Millenic Alli sat down Callum Howe on the left before picking out Aaron Cosgrave in the centre of the box, who fired over.
The City defence struggled to deal with another Alli run down the left, but this time he went for goal himself, but saw his shot fly above the debutant’s bar.
In the 66th minute, Halifax made their first substitution of the evening with Tylor Golden coming on for Max Wright.
With near twenty minutes of the game left, Castro was brought down after a surging run forward, with the Minstermen earning a free kick in a promising position. Castro took it, and it was tipped over by Johnson.
Halifax then made their second change Andrew Oluwabori replacing Cosgrave.
Lovely footwork from Will Smith resulted in a cross that John-Lewis was beaten to, and the following corner wasn’t dealt with by the visitors which allowed Howe to have a strike, but it was straight into the arms of Johnson.
Mitch Hancox then came on for Green in City’s final change with ten minutes left to play.
Halifax then went on to have a couple of deep free kicks that were both easily defended by the Minstermen.
In the 83rd minute, Burgess did well to lose his man, but the visitors recovered well with a last-ditch tackle to deny our number 20 a shot on goal.
With only a minute left of normal time, John-Lewis went down in the centre circle and required treatment. He came back on and the fourth official indicated a minimum of five minutes added time, with the score still being 1-0 to the away team.
But in the second minute of stoppage time, John-Lewis wriggled past his marker and got a low driven cross into the area, and the visitors only cleared it as far as Paddy McLaughlin, who buried it home to bring the game level.
YORK CITY: Sykes-Kenworthy, Fallowfield, Cordner, McLaughlin, John-Lewis ©, Howe, Marsh (61’ Castro), Kennedy (62’ Burgess), Woodyard, Smith, Green (79′ Hancox).
UNUSED SUBS: Watson, Dyson.
FC HALIFAX TOWN: Johnson ©, Galvin, Senior, Stott, Hunter, Alli, Thompson-Sommers, Keane, Wright (66’ Golden), Hoti, Cosgrave (73’ Oluwabori).
UNUSED SUBS: Chikukwa, Wilson, Iwobi.
ATTENDANCE: 4,740 (617 FC Halifax Town supporters).
WAITROSE MAN OF THE MATCH, CHOSEN BY BERRY’S JEWELLERS: Will Smith