Halsall was born in Bootle, Merseyside. He began his football career as an apprentice with Liverpool in 1977 and turned professional in 1979, but in six years with the club he never played for the first team. He moved on to Birmingham City, and went straight into the starting eleven for the First Division game away to West Bromwich Albion on 19 March 1983. Birmingham lost that game 2–0, but Halsall played in all but one of the remaining games of the 1982–83 season, in which the team won five of the last six games to avoid relegation, and scored his first goal for Birmingham in the penultimate game against Tottenham Hotspur.Matthews, p. 218. Halsall began the following season as a first-team regular, but despite demonstrating his enthusiasm and capacity for hard work, he gradually lost his hold on a starting place. He was sent off in his last appearance for the club, in a League Cup tie in October 1984, and was promptly sold to Carlisle United for a fee of £5,000.Matthews, pp. 219–20.
