Wanderers earn a crucial win over Valour thanks to Tiago Coimbra's historic hat-trick

Wanderers striker Tiago Coimbra and his teammates were stretching before their last pre-match drill when Missy "Mama" Searl, a stalwart of section 104 and of Halifax's footballing community, decided to ask the 21-year old Brazilian-Canadian for a few goals.

"Tiago, give me two!" she said.

Coimbra smirked and, with the bravado head coach's look to nurture in their No. 9s, told Searl he'd try for a hat-trick. By the 77th minute, Coimbra delivered on his word, putting away a third goal to help power the Wanderers past Valour FC for their first win since Canada Day. His hat-trick stands as the first in club history, saying nothing of his Canadian Premier League record of 10 shots on the night.

"It's great for us to get back to our winning ways and about the hat-trick, I'm still speechless," Coimbra told media post-match. "The only thing I can say is, I thank God, because if you look at two years ago, I was going through so many injuries, like went through a very tough time in my career, and like if I'm about to live what I'm living at the moment and be able to help the team the way I am, it's just God."

Coimbra's hat-trick couldn't have come sooner as the Wanderers snapped a six match winless drought. The crucial three points help them tie Cavalry FC, who sit third on the table, and creates a small buffer with York United, who have been steadily gaining ground on head coach Patrice Gheisar's squad.

It's not that the Wanderers have played badly through July and August; they've had some bright performances marred by moments of indecision and poor match management. The fact that their only wins since July 1 have come against Valour is noteworthy; they've not lived up to the standards they set for themselves earlier in the year. But the energy and killer instinct they displayed Friday night indicates they may be out of their football funk.

Gheisar again played a starting XI featuring Sean Rea, who has rounded into form in recent weeks, and Vitor Dias as freewheeling No. 10s with license to roam the pitch. They looked dangerous from the start, putting Valour on their heels early with one goal called off due to a handball and a great chance for Coimbra, set up by Rea, which was saved by recent CF Montréal loanee Emil Gazdov.

The Wanderers were rewarded in the 35th minute as Valour defender Gianluca Facchineri headed a contested ball into his own net. Later, trying to mark a bounding Coimbra, he erred by fouling the Brazilian-Canadian in the box, giving Halifax a penalty. Coimbra tucked the ball past Gazdov in the 57th minute to give his side a 2-0 lead.

But Halifax didn't take their foot off the pedal as they continued to build, both Rea and Isaiah Johnston finding Coimbra in the box to complete his hat-trick, another milestone in what has been a breakout season.

Speaking post-match, Gheisar praised his striker's work ethic.

"The one thing you've got to give that young man credit is that he continues to put himself in the right position. He continues to work and he just, where you see his best, is as the other team starts to die out, his energy doesn't die out. I actually think he starts to grow more and more in the game, so that's unbelievable," he said.

But the coach hasn't lost sight of where he'd like to be.

"Look, it's one step in the right direction. We're not where we want to be. We want to continue to top this performance," Gheisar explained.

"We did so much but we didn't get any bounces (previously), you know. I think we should've fared better against Pacific FC in the original game. Even in the next game against Forge. But the most important thing is the group's been consistently growing, they've never stopped believing, they've never stopped working, we've continued to challenge ourselves and learned a lot during that spell.

"We've learned to have better starts, we've learned to manage games better, we've learned to create more chances and have better finishes."

The Wanderers finished the night with 17 shots to Valour's nine, limiting the Winnipeg-based club to 0.5 expected goals. However, thanks to a bullet from Diogo Ressurreição, they managed to get on the board late to spoil Halifax's clean sheet. The bitter reactions from Thomas Meilleur-Giguère and goalkeeper Rayane Yesli, said Gheisar, speaks to the mentality they're trying to live.

"For me, it's about owning the things you want to come true. A clean sheet is what we wanted and (we) let it get away and it's something (Meilleur-Giguère's) disappointed in. I just finished talking to him. Just because you're up 2-0 doesn't mean you drop your line. You have to keep going.

"I love the leadership they've both taken and the standards we're setting."

The Wanderers also saw the return of Julian Dunn, who has missed a year's worth of football as he's rehabbed from a serious injury. His return to the pitch in the 85th minute is the Ontario-born defender's first minutes with the first-team since June 23, 2024.

Halifax next plays York United on September 1.

Cover Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan / Halifax Wanderers FC