Roberts happy to leave The Shay on a high

Roberts skippered Halifax to promotion via the play-offs last season, scoring in the final victory over Chorley at The Shay to cap a superb individual campaign.

But he brought his three-year stint at the club to an end last week by joining the Welsh side, who will come up against Halifax in the National League this season.

On his decision to leave, Roberts said: “It was nothing to do with Halifax. The chairman and the manager know I’ve loved every minute of my time there.

“If nothing had happened with a move I would have been happy to stay.

Wrexham had been interested for a while and it got to the point where the club accepted their offer and I was happy to take the opportunity.

“It puts me back into full-time football. I’m 28 soon and it gives me two years of full-time football.

“The Wrexham manager feels I can improve the squad and I’ve got to prove I’ve made the right decision and make my way into their team.

“I think the play-offs have got to be the aim for us, especially with the top seven now getting in. It gives you an even better chance of getting there.”

Roberts has been a key player at Halifax during what has been a tumultuous time for the club, as they were relegated from and promoted back to the National League as well as winning the FA Trophy last year at Wembley.

“Obviously it ended well after the relegation,” Roberts said on his time at the club. “When I signed the new deal last summer the first thing on my mind was to get the club back up.

“We had the FA Trophy final soon afterwards which was a nice bonus for the fans but that wasn’t the main thing for me.

“I feel it was job done in getting the club back to where they were.

“I had opportunities to leave for the Conference National last year and go full-time but the chairman did everything he could to keep me and I appreciated that.

“I’d have felt a bit guilty for leaving after being part of the reason we went down, and I wanted to be part of the reason we went up.”

Roberts says he is leaving behind a talented squad at The Shay. When asked how he thought Town would fare in the Conference Premier this season, he added: “It will depend on how hard they work, which is the same for every club. The harder you work the more rewards you get.

“But they’ve got a great squad there with some good young players.

“Cliff Moyo can play right-back and Ross Barrows is a young lad I rate very highly.

“It’s a really welcoming club and I had a lot of happy times there. Apart from the relegation I loved every minute of it.

“It was one of the best groups of players I’ve been involved in.”