Lancaster City 0 FC Halifax Town 3

This match had all the potential to be an FA Cup cracker - the underdog at home to a team two divisions above, coupled with it being two teams who know each other all too well after Halifax narrowly pipped Lancaster to the 2009/10 league title. But instead the occasion descended into chaos that was to ruin the match and mean the only talking point during and after this game wasn't what happened on the pitch itself.

The game began with a decent pace and both teams eager to create a few early chances. Halifax had the first chance, and with the Lancaster defence looking a bit nervous, the ball was played into the penalty area. With the Lancaster defenders desperately trying to clear, it was Brett Renshaw who managed to get the ball and smash it into the net to give Halifax a much needed early lead in just the 3rd minute.

A minute later Lancaster had the ball and were passing it about in the Halifax half when scuffles broke out behind the Halifax goal. At first a few groups were involved but this blew up very quickly and within the minute it was turning more into a mass brawl. As supporter attention turned from what was happening on the pitch to what was going on in the stand, the referee also had noticed what was going on and brought the match to a halt.

Behind the goal it was looking very ugly. This wasn't a case of a small bunch of idiots, there were around 20-30 people involved. After a couple of minutes it briefly looked like it was simmering down but then it all kicked off again. The situation was out of control.

This was a game that everyone knew was going to attract a large crowd compared to Lancaster's usual 200-250 attendances (the attendance yesterday was 646, looked like there were a lot more than that and pre match expectations had been more than that too). A team with a large following compared to most non league teams, Halifax are always likely to have a few groups of idiots tag along with the vast majority of decent well behaved supporters.

Despite this, Lancaster's security presence appeared to just be a couple of stewards. I thought it was the norm at this level for a club to have extra stewarding and bring in a couple of police officers when a large away following is going to turn up but this hadn't happened. So as the fighting continued there was no-one there to be able to break it up. I saw some of the staff including the girls who'd been selling programmes try in vain to wade in and calm the situation but this was never going to break up such a large brawl.

Some of the players came over to the stand to try to appeal for calm but apparently there was a lot of abuse and threats of violence directed at them. At this point the referee wisely moved the players away from the situation and instructed both teams to go into their dressing rooms whilst the situation was dealt with.

Lancaster's officials had by this point rang the police and 5 minutes later the first car turned up with another 2 or 3 appearing within the following 5 minutes. The fighting had broken up by this stage with the groups separating and some scattering. Some people left the ground before the police turned up and some more once the police were there. From what I gather that included some of the trouble causers and also some normal fans and families who were upset by what'd happened.

The discussion in the stands and after the game has centred around who started the fighting with differing accounts of what went on. The general summary is there were a couple of groups of idiots who turned up, at least one group pretending to be supporters of each team, and they started trouble behind the goal that Lancaster were attacking. There were a mixture of fans of both teams in that stand. Whilst I'd like to put all the blame on these idiots who started it off, the fact was that supporters of each team then allowed themselves to be provoked and got involved.

And whilst it's true that if you're suddenly attacked by a group of idiots then moving away and not being involved is easier said than done whilst it's happening, the fact is that after the initial brawl things seemed to stop for a minute before it all went nasty again, and people could've moved away from the trouble whilst things had stopped if they'd wanted to.

The police talked with some people involved in or nearby to the incident and apparently there were at least a couple of people with injuries caused by the fighting. The official info from the police after the game was that one person was arrested and 5 people ordered to leave the game. The referee reappeared to assess the situation, and with the police now there to keep an eye on things, the players were brought back onto the pitch and given a couple of minutes to warm up again before play resumed.

Unsurprisingly the early pace to the game before it was held up was gone and the half was scrappy. Lancaster had plenty of possession but couldn't even create half chances, their best chance being Lee Dodgson getting the ball in the penalty area but his shot was blocked.



Halifax were barely creating a thing themselves but found another breakthrough in the 33rd minute, Simon Garner getting the ball on the left corner of the penalty area and lashing it low into the right corner of the net to make it 2-0, and it stayed that way for the rest of the half.

It was drab and scrappy, the players obviously shaken by what'd happened, the early match atmosphere replaced with a stunned silence in the stands. The second half continued this way unfortunately, with little at all to report on.

Again Lancaster had plenty of possession but couldn't create anything of note with it. Meanwhile Halifax were on the whole just going through the motions. With the game dying a death, Lee Gregory netted a 3rd in the 85th minute. They had another chance shortly after with a shot from wide left lashed into the side netting. 

A game both teams will be eager to forget, with Lancaster in particular gutted that a game that attracted local families, students and others who aren't usually there gave them no reason at all to come back.

Halifax at least can try to shift their focus to the next round, with the FA cup 4th qualifying round draw around lunchtime tomorrow. This is the final qualifying round with the winners then entered into the FA cup 1st round draw. Halifax have reached and been knocked out at the 4th qualifying round stage in the previous two seasons, and will be hoping this could be 3rd time lucky.