Halifax Town 0 Shrewsbury Town 0

Last updated : 24 January 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Keeper Mark Cartwright foiled former team-mate Luke Rogers with a string of fine saves, that earned midtable Halifax Town an undeserved point.

Cartwright, 33, who played with Rogers at Shrewsbury until joining the Shaymen in September, was in commanding form against his old friend and the impressive individual performance was the main reason why Halifax escaped a heavy defeat.

Rogers should have put the visitors ahead in only the tenth minute but Cartwright somehow managed to turn away the striker's deflected shot at the base of the right hand upright.

Cartwright performed heroics again on 42 minutes by expertly tipping over Sam Aiston's 20-yard lob to keep Halifax level.

The home side faced a constant barrage of attacks in the first half and the pressure took its toll on persistent Achilles injury victim Craig Midgley - who was replaced by Danny Hudson on 37 minutes after succumbing to a problem that has plagued him for several weeks.

The best chance Halifax created came against the run of play on 26 minutes when Halifax striker Lewis Killeen robbed Darren Moss inside the area and planted a far post cross into the path of winger Ryan Mallon.

But the chance went begging as Mallon was brilliantly forced off the ball by Shrews defender Darren Tinson before he could get a shot away.

The home side were more of an attacking threat after the break but they could not find a way through the visitors strong defence despite forcing a string of corners early on.

The closest they came was on 47 minutes when Mark Monington's looping back header from a Kevin Sandwith corner forced Shrewsbury keeper Scott Howie to furiously back pedal before tipping over.

At the other end, Cartwright was still winning the psychological battle with Rogers and produced a fine diving save at the second attempt on 56 minutes to hold on to Rogers' stinging drive under pressure from Duane Darby.

And when Cartwright finally made a mistake by fumbling Martin O'Connor's left-wing cross on 62 minutes, Rogers wastefully snatched at a close-range shot and sent the ball spinning high over the crossbar.