Aldershot Town 1, FC Halifax Town 1ALDERSHOT Town boss Danny Searle has spoken of the bittersweet point gained from the 1-1 draw with high-flying Halifax Town at the EBB Stadium on Saturday.

The Shots failed to capitalise on George Fowler’s dramatic opening goal after just 47 seconds and paid the price as a late header from Jerome Binnom-Williams earned the Shaymen a point.

And it coud have been worse for Searle’s men as the West Yorkshire side spurned several chances to complete a smash-and-grab raid.

“It was a pleasing and a frustrating game all in one,” said Searle, who has seen his side pick up four points from their opening five league games.

“The first half I thought we were very good and probably could and should have been out of sight by half-time, and almost as good as we were in the first half, we were as poor in the second half. In the end we were probably glad of the point because Halifax created two or three chances in the last ten minutes where they could have won the game.”

While Searle has been satisfied with his team’s performance levels so far this season, which has meant that all three defeats have been by just the odd goal, he knows they must improve in the final third and he hoped Fowler’s early strike would pave the way.

“We talk every day as a squad about things we need to work on and areas where we need to be better. Performances wise we’ve been very good and we are confident that if we can get an early goal we can go on and really stamp our authority on games, so when that early goal went in I’m thinking ‘brilliant, everything we’ve spoken about is happening’ – and it did, we really asserted ourselves, we just didn’t take our chances, and as everyone knows at this level if you don’t take your chances there’s always an opportunity for the opposition to get back in the game, and that’s what happened.”

The Shots now turn their attention to a trip to the English Riviera on Saturday where they face Torquay United in a televised early-evening game before returing to the EBB to take on Sutton United on Monday as this month’s punishing schedule continues.

“When the fixtures came out we knew it was going to be a tough start,” said Searle, “so it’s a case of looking at where we’re at and getting through August in the best way we possibly can because even the fixtures we’ve got coming up in the next week or ten days aren’t easy games.

“It’s been a really tough start but we have been there or thereabouts, so from a performance perspective, taking away the second half against Halifax, we’ve been really pleased with everything we have done so far and we just need to get that little cutting edge in the final third. Once we get that, which we will, we’ll be fine.

“I’d ideally rather be maybe four, five or six points better off than where we are now based on the level of our performances, but it’s very early in the season. The league table doesn’t lie, the bottom line is we’ve played five, lost three, drawn one and won one, that’s the facts, but I’m not sure it will look like that when we get further on in the season.

“There are no home bankers, no guaranteed wins. In this league you could win seven on the bounce or you could lose seven out of seven having performed well. It’s a ruthless league.”