Rossendale United v FC Halifax Town: Baker could face united
Published Date:
21 November 2008
By Dave Fletcher
FC Halifax Town boss Jim Vince has refused to rule Tom Baker out of tomorrow's Unibond One North trip to Rossendale United.
But the Shay chief has admitted that, with Damien Allen set to return to the squad after injury, he is likely to take a cautious approach with the former Bradford Park Avenue man.
Baker has appeared in the last six of Town's seven successive league wins, but was forced from the field late on in last weekend's 3-1 victory over Chorley, and he subsequently had stitches in a gash on his leg.
"Damien Allen is fine," said Vince.
"He did everything everyone else did during training and he worked extremely hard.
"He is desperate to get back into the team and hopefully he will be involved.
"Tom Baker is desperate to play as well - he didn't want to come off against Chorley and that shows his appetite for the game and his attitude.
"But sometimes you have to hold people back.
"It is not a massive wound, but it is deep and it is always a worry if you bring someone back too early.
"I would not rule him out at this stage, but is a decision we will make at the last minute."
Vince has had the luxury of two training sessions with his squad this week and is hoping that as that becomes the norm over the next few weeks it will show on a Saturday.
"We have had a lot of games, but there is nothing better than 45 minutes of high intensity training like we had on Tuesday," he said. "We should reap the rewards from that."
The manager is certainly looking for an improvement on Town's start from last weekend when they were poor in the opening 45 minutes against Chorley and trailed 1-0 at the break.
"Last week the attitude was not right in the first half and I am still not sure why," said Vince. "But you could sense it in the warm up.
"In the second half we were terrific and the tempo was right. Our ball retention could still have been better but we had an end product."
Ashley Stott will be looking to score in a fourth successive game - something no Town player has done this season - but faces competition for his striking role from loan man Ajay Leitch-Smith.
FC Halifax Town (from): Kennedy, Coo, Brown, Meadowcroft, Adams, Barras, Phelan, Baker, Allen, Smith, Gedman, Stott, Leith-Smith, Ellison, Hinsley, King, Ellis.
TOWN'S Unibond One North game against Wakefield FC at the Shay, originally scheduled for November 4 will now be played on Saturday, January 3.
The full article contains 450 words and appears in Evening Courier newspaper.
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Last Updated:
21 November 2008 8:12 AM
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Source:
Evening Courier
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Location:
Halifax