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Brighouse Town v Halifax Town: New Shay signings get run out
HALIFAX Town fans will get their first chance to see the club's summer signings when they kick off their pre-season campaign against Brighouse Town at St Giles Road tomorrow (3.0).
Boss Neil Aspin is set to include Jamie Vardy, Mark Bower, Harry Winter, Scott Metcalfe, Danny Holland, Nathan Taylor and Liam Hogan in his squad along with the players retained from their Unibond One North title winning season.
Winter is a familiar figure to the Shay supporters after his successful spell on loan from Northwich Victoria last season.
But there will be a great deal of curiosity about the other new arrivals as Town look to make an impact in their first season in the Evo-Stik Premier Division.
And the Halifax plan, as it is with Aspin's Brighouse counterpart Mark Brier, is to field different sides in each half of tomorrow's clash.
"Barring any strains, I expect everyone signed in the summer to take part," said Aspin, whose players have been back in training for little more than 10 days.
"The players all need a game because no matter how much running you do it is always good to get a touch of the ball.
"Most of the players will get half a game and do some running as well. At this level you only get so many opportunities to train."
Aspin added that he was not expecting to make too many further changes to his squad with just a couple of places still up for grabs.
"Last year there were a lot of people who played and then dropped out," he said. "This year I only have one or two to look at."
Brier's side have been back training for a month and he is also likely to field two different teams tomorrow. "We had a training game last week and two seasons ago I would have been happy to have had either side available to me," said Brier.
"Only one signed player has not trained with us yet and that is Andy Markham who is recovering from his knee injury."
Sadly for Brier, he looks unlikely to have new keepers Andy Woods or Lee Ashforth available for the game. Goalkeeping coach Danny Box will step into the breach.
The two clubs have a good relationship and the managers clearly have respect for each other.
"Brighouse Town have done really well," said Aspin, "I spoke to Mark Brier a few times last season. He has done a good job there and I like his enthusiasm for the job.
"It is a game between two clubs going well at the moment and they will give us a good test."
Brier is hoping for a test as well and believes his players are better prepared now than they were 12 months ago when Halifax's superior fitness caught them by surprise.
"We were talking to the Halifax management team after the game last year and asked them how they had got their players back so fit," said Brier.
"We were told that they had all been given off season programmes and we did that with our lads.
"The issue at our level is whether they have followed the programmes or not, but they have all come back with great enthusiasm."
Brier will be without Danny Toronczak and Danny Davidson as they look to make an impression at Harrogate Railway and Bradford Park Avenue respectively.
But he hopes to include couple of additions to last season's NCE first division promotion-winning side, new signings Graham Marchant and Nick Boshell. Marchant was with Nostell last season while Boshell was at Thackley.
"Marchant scored a few goals last season," said Brier. "Nick is a strong player who is good at free kicks."
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Weather for Halifax
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light snow
Temperature: -0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Light snow
Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
