SILSDEN will certainly not be lacking motivation when they entertain FC Halifax Town in tomorrow's FA Cup preliminary round replay at Cougar Park.
Not only do the North West Counties Premier Division outfit have home advantage after the weekend's goalless draw at the Shay, two of their main men are doubly keen to finish off the job.
Manager Paul Schofield spent his formative footballing years in the Shay youth set up while midfielder Craig Smith featured twice for the first team in the final throes of the old club's Football League days.
"It is a long time since I was here," said Schofield. "It was in the days when Halifax could not afford apprentices and local lads helped out with the Northern Intermediate League side.
"I was very young at the time, but really enjoyed going back on Saturday."
Smith, who had a fine game at the weekend, made a couple of substitute appearances for the Shaymen in April 2002 including one against Rushden & Diamonds in the last-ever Division Three game at the Shay.
"Craig had been looking forward to the tie for weeks," said Schofield.
"He has been with us since pre-season and we are delighted to have him on board. He has been fantastic.
"With his Shay background he was thoroughly up for it on Saturday and rightly so.
"He put the shirt on and played like he really, really wanted it."
Town's failure to score for the third successive home game on Saturday enabled Silsden to record their first clean sheet of the campaign.
And Schofield said that he was happy with the way things had gone at the Shay.
"We have been scoring goals but we have also been leaking a few," he said.
"We were pleased with a clean sheet which was our first of the season.
"We have been playing some great football, even when we lost early on in the season.
"You can see the progression so it was no surprise that we performed as we did on Saturday."
The winners of tomorrow night's replay face a trip to the north east in the first qualifying round to play Ryton who won 2-0 at fellow Northern League outfit Billingham Synthonia.
FC Halifax Town fans wishing to travel to next Tuesday's Unibond League Division One North game at Mossley can book their places now by calling 07707 143094. The cost will be £11 and transport leaves the Shay at 5.30.The full article contains 439 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
