A terrible decision, says Lakeland after late goal ruled out in loss to Forest Green Rovers

Disappointment Over Disallowed Goal

Halifax suffered a 2-1 defeat, with Ricardo Rees scoring twice to cancel out Will Hugill's opening goal. However, The Shaymen were left frustrated when a goal was disallowed late in the game following a corner kick. Manager Lakeland expressed his disappointment over the decision.

"I thought we played well, we certainly deserved something out of the game and we should have had something out of the game, barring officials not being able to do their job properly," he said in an interview with the Courier.

"So I'm frustrated."

When asked about what the referee told him regarding the decision after the game, Lakeland shared his thoughts:

"That the man on the goalkeeper was offside when Shaun shot, and he was impeding the goalkeeper. But he's wrong. I've seen it back, and tomorrow he's going to be disappointed because he's dropped a right clanger.

"It's just not good enough. There's no offside, the initial contact's come off their man's shoulder, David's level with one of their players and even if the contact was off one of our men, their goalkeeper's slammed him to the ground and he's on top of David when Shaun puts it in the net.

"So how they deem that to be offside is just as poor a decision as I've seen this season and it's cost us."

Lakeland felt the incident was typical of the officiating in the game.

"I thought we got nothing. It's not the first time - every time you go below Birmingham as Halifax Town, you get nothing off the officials," he said.

"It's not good enough."

Despite the loss, Lakeland was pleased with the performance of his team.

"Character, organisation, discipline. I thought the way we defended the box, sticking to a plan, and just the way the players adapted in the game when we made a tactical tweak," he said.

"And the reaction when it went to 2-1. We had a right go right at the end, and they're clinging on for a victory.

"I take great confidence from that performance from us and I'm immensely proud of the players."

Tactical Adjustments and Player Management

On the subject of Josh Hmami's first-half substitution, Lakeland explained the decision:

"He's just got a knock that he's been carrying for a couple of weeks, and he's been getting through, but just the volume of games and travel, we just didn't think he was moving that freely.

"He was disappointed when we brought him off because he said he could carry on but we just didn't think he was moving as freely and landing as many second balls or making as many runs beyond, and we felt we'd benefit in possession from making a change and putting somebody on either side in-front of the wing-backs."

Striker Loan Issue

Striker Owen Devonport was not involved in the match after his loan from Fleetwood could not be extended.

"I'm incredibly disappointed to lose him," Lakeland said, “which doesn't help us when we've got a big game to prepare for today.

"He started and played 90 minutes at Tamworth. He wanted to stay and we told them two weeks ago we wanted him to stay and at the 11th hour they've pulled him back.

"I'm disappointed."