Brackley 0-0 Halifax: Three points from three away games a good return, says Heath

That game completed a run of three games on the road following wins at FC United and Kidderminster, with those seven points leaving Halifax four points clear of sixth place with five games to go.

“I’d have taken that beforehand,” Heath said of his team’s return from the three away games. “Obviously we wanted nine but you’ve got to be sensible. They’re three tough away games because FC United, yes it was comfortable on the day, but on paper with the form they were in that was a real potential banana skin.

“Then we had Kiddy away, so to get seven points, I don’t think anyone can grumble at that.”

Heath admitted there were some tired legs among the squad at full-time on Tuesday, and praised the work-rate of his team on the night.

“All the players said they were really feeling it in the last 15 minutes,” said Heath. “The two wing-backs Kevin Roberts and Josh Wilde were both out on their feet.

“Kidderminster are a full-time team and we looked tired at the end of the game, and rightly so.

“These boys were at work on Tuesday and they’ll be at work on Wednesday. They don’t have the privilege of having the next day off and recovering.

“We’re a part-time team and that’s why I’m really proud of them because I thought they put a massive shift in for each other.

“We looked a lot more stable when we matched them up. They were picking us off in the first-half and that jaded us at the start of the game, but we grew into it once we changed the shape.”

Heath confirmed the half-time substitution of Dion Charles for Danny hone was purely tactical, and felt his side were much improved after the interval.

“I thought they had the better of the first-half but once we matched them up in the second-half with the same formation we had the best two chances of the game,” he said.

“We looked better second-half when we went to 3-5-2. I thought the players were magnificent. We’ve had three really tough away games and, make no bones about it, this is a tough place to come, especially when you’ve had two games away from home and the amount of effort we had to put into Kidderminster.

“I think the lads should be proud of themselves.”

Striker Adam Morgan was an unused substitute in the game, with Heath stressing he wanted to utilise the physical presence of Richard Peniket and Tom Denton in attack.

He added: “What you’ve got to do is keep powerful players on the pitch against Brackley. Peniket and Denton can both defend when you need them to. You need to be powerful against Brackley. Richard was doing really well, I thought he caused them a lot of problems when he went up top, his running in behind and his endeavour was fantastic. And Denton is Denton - you need his physicality against three big centre-halves.”