"Beyond our wildest dreams" - Town chairman David Bosomworth on ambition, Millington and returning to Wembley

The Shaymen won the competition for the first time in their history back in 2016 and are back in the final again on May 21, when they will face Gateshead.

The Halifax chairman admits it is an unexpected surprise to see his club back in the final, especially given their challenging route through the FA Trophy.

"I think you could say we've done it the hard way - we've had seven away cup ties this season, two in the FA Cup and five in the Trophy and three of those went to penalties," he said.

"But it's very gratifying to have beaten three National League sides away from home on the way to getting to Wembley.

"The fact we've been before is something in itself because I, like a lot of Halifax fans, probably didn't believe we could ever get to Wembley, so it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our day in the sun.

"To be going back for a second time in seven years is beyond our wildest dreams.

"It was such a wonderful occasion in 2016 and even now, I cannot believe that Scott McManus struck a ball 25 yards with his right foot!

"He wouldn't even pass a ball five yards with his right foot so where on earth he pulled that out from I will never know.

"There's a great photograph showing the ball going past the Grimsby keeper's outstretched right hand.

"Just an absolutely fabulous occasion. It's one thing being at Wembley but at the end of the day, you haven't done the job and what you don't want it to be is satisfying enough just to get there, you want to go to win.

"I'm sure both sides will be desperate to do that and we've as good a chance as Gateshead have."

The Shaymen took around 10,000 fans to the national stadium seven years ago, and Bosomworth hopes to see at least that number back there again from Calderdale.

"It's just tremendous to be at Wembley and I realise times are difficult at the moment with rising costs, but to the Halifax and Calderdale public, I do sincerely hope they get behind the town's team and cheer them on at Wembley," he said.

"We don't want to be outnumbered by the Gateshead fans.

"I sincerely hoped we could get 10,000 to 12,000 of our fans down there.

"We hope the fans will turn out, we realise travelling is expensive and these are testing times for families, but we hope we have a really good crowd that gives a wall of noise to help the team on.

"I was quite emotional after the Altrincham game because it was the dawn of realisation that 'oh my goodness, we're going back to Wembley again'.

"It means such a lot.

"As much as I will take immense pleasure in the club being at Wembley, it's ground-breaking for the players because a player might only get one chance to play there, a manager might only get one chance to manager there, a physio might only get one chance to run on the pitch there.

"It affects so many people and their families.

"But it's the fans' day because if you're not up and excited for going to Wembley then you never will be.

"My plea is that if you can find the will or the way to come and cheer on your team, please do."

A criticism often levelled at the club was a perceived failure to capitalise on their appearance at Wembley in 2016.

But Bosomworth is adamant the club does everything it can to increase the number of people coming through the turnstiles.

"We do because we've got our community arm that's out there working all the time," he said.

"We can't do any incentives around Wembley because everything's controlled financially by Wembley Stadium.

"The pricing is good though.

"We have a small team of staff and we were responsible for selling the Altrincham away tickets, which was back-to-back with a huge game against Wrexham which involved a huge number of meetings around health and safety, policing and the 450 diners with us that day.

"People said we were slow to get merchandise for Wembley - but the problem is we had to get it approved."We've got the flags, the clappers, the scarves. But you need a bit of time to mobilise all that."

On whether he feels there are more potential supporters out there for the club to try and attract, Bosomworth said: "People go to Wembley for different reasons, perhaps they don't come to a league game at The Shay during the season.

"It's perhaps a family outing, there may be one or two key members in the family that bring along another two or three for a day out and an experience.

"Players and clubs might only get to Wembley once, we've got to Wembley twice and anybody who went to Wembley the first time couldn't fail to say 'blimey, that was such a good day out'.

"To feel the pride when your team's coming out of the tunnel and lining up, the sun was shining on the day, all the fans in blue and white.

"A wonderful occasion, a magnificent stadium."

When asked if being part of such a showpiece occasion is an opportunity for the club to attract more fans to the club more often, Bosomworth said: "You'd like to think so, be it players or fans.

"We recognise the start to the season, I think we lost the first five out of seven, so that puts you on the back foot.

"We had a lot of turmoil with people leaving - the manager, the top scorer, the captain - so to go and bring a group of players in and gel it together with a new manager takes times.

"We've shown it in fits and starts but as the season's gone on, I do believe we've got better.

"We've had a reasonable run of results towards the end of the season but too late to challenge for the play-offs.

"To offset the disappointment of the league, the bonus has definitely got to be that we're making a Wembley appearance again.

"It does show the club is working very hard to achieve success but perhaps the challenge at the beginning of the season was too great for us."

Despite a disappointing league campaign from The Shaymen, Bosomworth is convinced that Town boss Chris Millington is the right man to lead the team next season.

"Very much so," he said.

"There's a learning curve because being a number one is totally different to being a number two.

"Recruitment comes into that and the things we look at.

"You've seen players developing in the team by being given game-time.

"We've been beset by a lot of injuries and illness, we've had four on the bench at times.

"We did a pay-as-you-play deal with Max Wright to bring him back from Harrogate and the poor lad's not really appeared.

"Kian Spence has been out for around ten weeks, it's just been a raft of injuries and it's been difficult to negotiate.

"But as a manager, that's what you've got to work around, you have to look at your options and how you change things around and work through it.

"Chris has worked through all of that.

"We've asked a lot of the players, particularly the younger players, who've come to the fore.

"But sometimes they're running on empty."

Bosomworth resisted strong calls from some Halifax supporters at different points during the season to get rid of Millington, and was rewarded with a much-improved end to the campaign, which included Town reaching Wembley.

"I go back to the interview process we had with him, it would have been easy to have just gone 'look, do you want to take over from Pete?'," Bosomworth said.

"I didn't know him as a number one. I'd speak to Chris but I'd speak more to Pete so I felt it was important not only to get to know Chris better but also to understand his thought-processes and so on.

"I involved people who are not involved in football to be part of that process and he came through it really well.

"That doesn't mean to say it's fool-proof but I thought it was testament to Chris that all the members of the backroom staff stayed with him, which was a big help.

"I accept that sometimes we played in such a way that probably didn't help us score goals.

"We've defended quite well this season but the biggest problem has been scoring goals.

"It's all about the two penalty areas, the more often you get the ball in the box and the more often you have a shot and hopefully hit the target, you've more chances of scoring.

"I've had numerous discussions with Chris because, like in any job, if they're inexperienced and they're learning on the job, you don't just leave them to sink or swim on their own, you talk to them and encourage them.

"You question why are you doing this or could there be a different way? We've done that and we've had some really constructive discussions.

"He's had the ability to look at different ways of approaching matches, and bit by bit, I think we've seen progress throughout the season.

"We've lost a number of games by the odd goal but we've probably dominated the game and created chances and not taken them, but we've probably not created enough chances.

"From that point of view it's frustrating. You think back to Torquay away, Yeovil away - there's numerous games where you think 'how on earth have we lost that game?'.

"But I do think we've got more consistent results as we've gone on, and that's all down to him.

"He's got the ability to take on board information, question himself and his colleagues or ask for advice from colleagues, which is the sign of a good manager.

"I hope he can take us on further next season, which is obviously the aim.

"We don't want to be mid-table. We've always joked that there's hardly ever a dull season at Halifax and ironically, we've got to Wembley in the season we finish mid-table."

Another regular criticism of Bosomworth's tenure is that the Town chairman isn't ambitious enough in pushing the club towards promotion.

"If we weren't ambitious, I wouldn't be doing it, I just wouldn't be doing it," he said.

"Why would I do the hours I do and all the rest of it to not feel we've got a chance of getting promoted?

"Let's not kid ourselves, when I look at the gate receipts of certain matches, there were a couple late on in the season that were £7,000 or £5,000, which doesn't give you much to play with by the time you've taken out your VAT, your stewarding costs, match officials costs and medical staff costs.

"It costs a certain amount to run this club for ten months of the year. It reduces over the summer because players are on 44-week contracts.

"The ambition is certainly there but ambition does come with a pound sign.

"When I look back at how many times Halifax Town went bust or had to apply for re-election in the old set-up, yes we've had a relegation but we got out of it first time.

"We're ambitious as we can be but unless there's a money man out there who wants to come and lavish a lot of money into this club, but the businessmen that do it will pick out clubs with a big fan base.

"Wrexham was a sleeping giant. Their two owners didn't stick a pin in a map and say 'we'll choose Wrexham'.

"The owners there, they've done their homework, they know what the potential is with the ground, the fans, and they're spending a lot of money, but they're also cute because they have their media channels that bring them a lot of money in.

"I don't feel it's all about money though, a team can get promoted by getting the right team on the pitch.

"You saw it in our game against Wrexham, our average age that day was 24.

"We played brilliantly and won 3-1. That shouldn't have happened really, but it did.

"I think some of our shortcomings for getting promotion in the past have been the lack of numbers in the squad and just needing an extra bit of quality in the run-in.

"But I have had discussions with managers about that.

"I remember when we got relegated, I sat down and said 'look, if you want to bring a couple of players in, we can do it' and we didn't.

"I think we were away to Barrow and had two players collapse in a heap, couldn't play for the rest of the season and ended up with square pegs in round holes."