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Halifax Town A.F.C.

Halifax Town Association Football Club were an English football team who most recently played in the Conference National. The club went into administration during the 2007–08 season, and after finishing 20th in the Conference National, were demoted by two divisions to the Unibond Division One North when the club failed to get a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) passed. The club was reformed and renamed F.C. Halifax Town in July 2008.

The club played The Shay (hence the reason for their nickname "The Shaymen") in Halifax, West Yorkshire, which is now the home of F.C. Halifax Town.

History

Early years

The club was formed in 1911, they played in the Yorkshire Combination and the Midland League and were one of the founder members of Football League Third Division North in 1921, and remained in that division until restructuring in 1958.

Financial Struggle

The club nearly always struggled financially as well as with its discipline. It was relegated from the Football League Third Division in 1963 and was re-elected several times in the Football League Fourth Division in the 1980s and early 1990s after finishing near the bottom of the football league, before being finally relegated in 1993. This a possible reason for the strong rivalry of the club with Huddersfield Town F.C., as Huddersfield would tend to vote against Halifax remaining in the league.

Glory Days

The club's fortunes were turned around in 1967 when Alan Ball Sr took over as manager of the club. He achieved promotion with the club in 1969. Ball left soon after, however the club enjoyed some measure of success in the Football League Third Division in the early seventies, finishing one place short of promotion in 1971, and many of the club's supporters tout this era as the "Glory Days". However, the club was relegated back to the fourth division in 1976.

Glory to Gloom

Ever since the relegation of 1976, the club saw a long period in the fourth division with very little success, but a lot of financial problems. The club always languished near the bottom of the football league, managing no better than a single mid-table finish in 1983. Many say that the goals of Steve Norris were what allowed the club to survive in the football league. However, Norris left in 1992, and the subsequent year, Town were relegated.

Conference

The club found the Football Conference no easier than the fourth division. After several poor seasons with dire financial constraints, the club was demoralised as there seemed to be no way out. However, like with Alan Ball, George Mulhall came on the scene towards the end of the 1996/1997 and avoided relegation out of the Conference. The next season Mulhall and O'Regan made a number of additions to the squad including Jamie Paterson, Mark Bradshaw and Lee Martin to put together a title-winning team. The Shaymen were crowned champions of the Conference and regained Football League status. Free scoring Geoff Horsfield was also the conferences top scorer that year with 30 goals.

Back In the Football League

For unknown reasons, at the start of the 1998/1999 season, manager George Mulhall chose to retire and Kieran O'Regan was promoted from assistant to manager. Striker Geoff Horsfield, who scored 30 goals for Town in the previous season, only managed ten games before he was sold to Fulham for £300,000 in October 1998. Halifax made a strong start to their league campaign and were amongst the leaders until December after which their results started to drop-off and they slipped into mid-table. Still only three points off playoff positions O'Regan was sacked as manager by Chairman Jim Bown after a 0 - 0 draw with Rochdale in April 1999. For the next three seasons, Town had three different managers, none of whom were able to bring success to the club. After two poor seasons, Town became the first team to be relegated to the Conference twice in 2001/2002.

Chris Wilder

Chris Wilder took over the club in administration with 5 players. However, the first season back in the Conference saw the Shaymen push for promotion and, for a short while, the automatic promotion spot. However, it was not to be and the club finished in 8th position.

The following season Halifax struggled to make any kind of impact in the division, lurking around mid-table for almost the entire season. The disappointing season ended with the club in 19th place, a rather dangerous position to be in, but the club were never in serious danger of being relegated.

The 2004/05 season was much brighter. The club managed to put a very credible promotion push together and spent much of the season around the play-off zone. However, after a dismal run of results in the last two months of the season the club dropped from 2nd place down to 9th.

In 2005/06 the Shaymen once again put together a strong push for promotion. They finished the season in 4th position and earned a place in the play-offs. An exiting play-off semi-final against Grays Athletic ended with a 5-4 aggregate victory over 2 legs to set up a play-off final with Hereford United at Leicester's Walkers Stadium on May 20, 2006. Goals from Lewis Killeen and John Grant put Halifax 2-1 ahead but Guy Ipoua levelled the score for Hereford in the 80th minute and the game went into extra time. Minutes into extra time substitute Chris Senior scored a third goal for Halifax but it was disallowed for offside. Ryan Green scored the winner for Hereford in the 109th minute and Halifax's dreams of a return to the football league were shattered.

With continuing financial problems off the pitch Halifax struggled to maintain this form in the 2006/7 season and only avoided relegation from the conference on the last day of the season. Chris Wilder found himself again in a relegation battle in 2007/8 after the team were docked 10 points when they were placed into administration by a local consortium trying to buy the club. Halifax again survived relegation on the last day of the season, only to find out later that they would be relegated anyway due to the consortium failing to meet the creditors demands to bring the club out of administration.

End of the Club

These tax debts continued to threaten the club after the end of the 2007/08 season. In May 2008 it was revealed that the club owed over £800,000 to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, making the club over £2 million in the red.

At a meeting of the Football Association, discussing the makeup of the football pyramid for the 2008/09 season, Halifax Town were not placed in either the Football Conference, the Conference North or the Northern Premier League Premier Division. Though the club appealed against the decision to remove them from the Football Conference, they were unsuccessful and the club was wound up.

Fans reformed Halifax Town under the name F.C. Halifax Town and were accepted to play in the Northern Premier League Division One North in the 2008/09 season.