Wanderers dismantle Forge FC in critical 3-0 win to keep their playoff hopes alive

Three goals. Three points. And a rekindling of Halifax's playoff hopes.

Saturday's 3-0 victory over Forge FC was the type of elixir the Wanderers faithful yearned for given the many lows of their campaign. And with their season on the line — and playoff hopes on life support — the players came out and delivered their best match of the year, dismantling the CPL's top-seeded club in authoritative fashion.

It was, in many ways, a statement performance from a squad that has underperformed given their talent and expectations: thoroughly beating Bobby Smyrniotis' side has announced that the Wanderers still have meaningful football to play.

The result also stretched Halifax's unbeaten record at the Wanderers Grounds to eight matches. Their home record, which includes five wins, four draws and two losses across 11 contests, is the wind in Halifax's sails and one of the reasons they are only three points outside of the fifth and final playoff position.

Speaking post-match, Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar praised his side's performance, dubbing it what they should aspire to every week.

“Last Saturday (against Pacific) was not a good point that we wanted to be at with the score, with the lack of discipline, with some of the things that happened. But I say, who doesn't make a mistake? What I said to these guys is that you can cry in the storm or dance in the rain. And I thought that game did not look like an eighth-placed team against first place," he told reporters in his availability following the victory.

"So, yeah, I’m really happy with the win. But part of that makes me also say that we need that performance every week now. That’s our standard.”

The Wanderers were on the front-foot from kickoff despite the fact that they sported a makeshift backline — featuring Zachary Fernandez, new signing Nassim Mekideche, U-21 defender Jefferson Alphonse and attacker turned right-back Clément Bayiha — as Dan Nimick and Cale Loughrey sat out due to suspension. But watching the match, all four players settled in nicely, providing solid defending and plenty of help on attack with overlapping runs and deft passing.

Both Bayiha and Fernandez were integral to Halifax's first goal — with some help from striker Ryan Telfer — as they fought for a ball on the right side of Forge's 18-yard box. Fernandez was eventually able to dig it out from between a Forge defender's legs and quickly turned to fire a pinpoint pass to Giorgio Probo making a late run, who rifled it into the back of the net for his third of the season.

Sensing his side's lack of energy, Smyrniotis tried to jumpstart Forge by making some changes at half-time, bringing on captain Kyle Bekker and Jordan Hamilton as reinforcements.

But Probo had another trick up his sleeve. Telfer again created time and space for his midfielders with his holdup play and sent a pass to Probo, who was positioned nearly at the touchline but within the final third. Noticing that the Wanderers had men in the box, Probo delivered a wicked cross which found skipper Andre Rampersad, who made no mistake heading it in past Forge keeper Jassem Koleilat.

Now on the ropes and down 2-0, Forge tried to turn up the pressure but coughed up the ball just outside their of their own 18-yard box around the 60th minute. Smelling a goal, Wanderer Massimo Ferrin cut inside, freezing the defenders before playing a superb outside-the-boot pass between Forge's backline. The ball fell perfectly to Sean Rea, who shook the last defender and deftly dribbled the ball past Koleilat for his first goal as a Wanderer.

All said, the Wanderers managed 16 shots towards goal to Forge's four and could have easily run the score up. Halifax keeper Yann Fillion was forced to make only a single save on the night.

Forge stalwart Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson said it was simply not a good match for the Hammers.

"I think right from the start, I felt we were lacking energy. Both in duels and on the ball, we made a lot of individual mistakes all over the pitch and the recoveries weren't good enough. I think you could see that, especially on the first goal, second and well, third goal as well. It was a chain effect where we let one mistake become two, three, four and we got punished for it," he said.

For his part, Smyrniotis called the match an outlier.

"Strange one," he said. "I'm closing in on six years here and I don't think I've seen a performance like that from us. Uncharacteristic in all parts of the pitch. To be honest, the ball was slowing us down a lot in play, maybe something we should have taken into consideration a little bit more."

In some ways, the match was also an outlier for the Wanderers given their total domination but it is something they'll be looking to replicate as they continue their playoff push. Gheisar emphasized the coaching staff challenged the group, especially off the back of a poor performance against Pacific.

"The word that I chose to challenge the group with today was courage. I hope when we say that word, most of the group can say, and most of our fans and supporters can say, yeah, they have courage," he said. "But listen, courage isn't about tackling people hard. Courage is making the run where you don't get the ball, courage is taking a shot, courage is running 60-yards to help your teammate. And I think we had that," he said.

It's safe to say Saturday represented the squad's most complete performance across 90-minutes this season.

Looking ahead, the Wanderers continue their homestand on Wednesday versus Pacific, who have a three point lead in the standings. If Halifax manages a win, they'll be equal on points with the Vancouver Island-side.

From the Notebook:

1. I've noticed over the nearly two seasons of covering the Halifax Wanderers that Patrice Gheisar is very particular about his appearance. Over the last several months, I've complimented him on a pair of sneakers — specifically a set of Nike Dunk Lows, a shoe in tribute to Montréal's renowned bagel scene — which I've seen him sport on a number of occasions. But I'd noticed on broadcasts, in matches where the Wanderers were away, his Dunk Lows were absent. On Saturday, he was again wearing his sesame-adorned sneakers so I asked him post-match if he'd been wearing the same set of shoes for Halifax's eight match unbeaten streak at home. It was not a coincidence. "I'm quite superstitious," he said, laughing. "It's actually the same socks, underpants, shirt too, everything. I'm hoping I can find an outfit for the road games to wear often, too."
2. Speaking of road games, I — as well as several others — have been critical of the Wanderers' abysmal away record. They have the lowest amount of road points in the league. Out of their 11 matches, they've managed one win, which was a 4-0 blowout versus Vancouver FC. But struggling away from home isn't just a Wanderers issue: Smyrniotis was asked about his side's continued apathy when not playing at Tim Hortons Field. They, despite being top of the table, have only two wins in 11 road matches. His answer, I think, was interesting: “Last year, if you look at our record, we got four wins at home. This year, we’ve got 12 or 13 through all competitions. So we flipped the script. What matters is what happens in the end. Whenever November rolls around, we’ll look at all of that stuff. Until then, it’s one game, one place, one shield, and you look at it that way, it’s not necessarily what your record is in one place or another. Because next week we could win on the road. And then what does that mean? It’s just a game."
3. On the topic of Forge, this is the second time in a matter of weeks that I've been in attendance to watch them live and they've come out absolutely listless. They looked fatigued when I covered their Canadian Championship match against Toronto FC at the end of August and again looked spent yesterday versus the Wanderers. Part of it, I'm sure, is fatigue. No CPL club has played as many matches as Forge this year when you include CanChamp, Champions Cup and league play. But Achinioti-Jönsson made it sound like it could be a mentality thing, which surprised me. "Today, we had a chance to take a big step forward and we didn’t take it, which is a little bit what we’ve done throughout the years: we make it unnecessarily hard in the game, maybe look like we have some breathing room when we really don’t, and when it really gets tight and it’s go time, that’s usually when we show up. But’s it’s not like your ideal way to go about," he said. It'll be fascinating to see if this streak of blasé performances is merely a blip in their season on way to another championship or signs of some greater issue.
4. Giorgio Probo had a fantastic afternoon. He ultimately scored the match winner, earned a highlight reel assist and was a joy to watch. He played with intensity and passion and showcased what he can do. In a word, he dominated. It's easy to forget that his NCAA coach told The Wanderers Notebook in the off-season that he thought Probo was the best college midfielder in America last year. It's not that people have doubted Probo's talent but, for a slew of reasons, he's been in and out of the starting XI. Speaking post-match, he admitted he's had a hard time but knew Saturday was an opportunity to rewrite the narrative around his season. “It was a tough time for me,” said Probo. "I believe everybody is a good player but it's just confidence. When you have confidence from the coaching staff and the players. I knew this was an opportunity. We had seven games left, I knew if I was playing good this game, I might get some minutes in the next week. This was it, this was my day."
5. Just a quick note about Probo's goal: I thought it was the culmination of some excellent work by Telfer, Fernandez and Bayiha. When I asked Probo to describe it, he couldn't help but smile: "Twenty seconds (before my goal), Pat told me to run in behind and try to stay in the box and in the box, you just need to stay calm, not to panic. When I saw the opportunity, I just picked my moment and was lucky to be in the right place at the right time and I just score."
6. The Montréal Four — I believe that's what the kids are calling them — looked like they've been playing defence together for years. Overall, I was extremely impressed by Nassim Mekideche (you can read my chat with him here) as he made his Wanderers debut and showcased a poise I didn't expect. He was calm while defending but also wasn't afraid to move into space with the ball at his feet and did so several times. His passing (37/46 passes completed) was a bit rusty but I expect it'll round out as he gets to know his teammates more. Alphonse was again dependable. But aside from Probo, I thought Bayiha and Fernandez were the next two best players on the pitch. Combined, they won 22 out of 28 duels and owned the flanks of the pitch.
7. It's no coincidence that Halifax's drive and compete resulted in a clean sheet. In fact, it's their first clean sheet since July 1. One of the biggest reasons, as mentioned above, is that they simply won the vast majority of their duels and nixed any Forge attack long before they made it into the final third. Limiting the Hammers to four shots is certainly a feather in the coaching staff's cap.
8. Which leads us to the big question: what happens on Wednesday? Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé, Nimick and Loughrey will all be available against Pacific. For my part, I expect Bayiha and Fernandez to retain their roles but wouldn't be surprised if Nimick comes in for Alphonse, with Mekideche lining up beside the Labradorian-born centre-back. I also expect some rotation up front with Aidan Daniels and Tiago Coimbra getting some more minutes. But the biggest question mark is whether Aiden Rushenas will get in for another match. The club's need for U-21 minutes, I think, makes that likely. Either way, competition is a good problem for the coaching staff to have.

Cover Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan / Halifax Wanderers FC