FC Halifax Town 1-0 Barnet: "This team finds a way to win," says Shaymen boss Wild

Town boss Pete Wild says his team found a way to win after their 1-0 victory at home to Barnet.
Pete Wild. Photo: Marcus BranstonPete Wild. Photo: Marcus Branston
Pete Wild. Photo: Marcus Branston

Skipper Niall Maher's first-half goal earned The Shaymen a crucial three points in the race for promotion.

"It's never going to win any awards is it, that game," Wild said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"They came with a plan to frustrate us, to slow things down, to do everything they could to keep the game with no flow.

"We like flow and they stopped us having any flow to the game.

"I'm not criticising it because people could say that's what we did on Tuesday night, it's just frustrating.

"But again, we've found a way. This team finds a way to win and I'm dead pleased we have done."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Wild added: "I said to the players it's going to be like this for probably the next five or six weeks until the pitch has improved and teams like that are going to come and frustrate you.

"It's a compliment and we're going to have to find different ways to break teams down.

"It is what it is, it's not going to change, we all just have to be patient and find a way, which we did off a set-piece today."

The Town boss downplayed the impact the Shay pitch had on the contest.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"I don't think the pitch was a factor today. Of course it could be better, but I think Ozzy's done a phenomenal job in getting it to what it looks like," he said.

"I just thought the referee's going to need a new whistle after today, he didn't let the game flow and that frustrates me as much as anything.

"But we won so let's just move on."

When asked about when the Shay surface may return to something like normal, Wild said: "It's probably going to be another two to three weeks before the grass starts growing again, but we've got that week in March now where we've got those three games and that's us for the month.

"I keep saying to the players they have to learn how to play on it, and when we do that we've got to take the lessons from today and from Dover, and make sure we implement that."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The win rounds off a good week for Town after their 1-1 draw at Notts County on Tuesday with ten men.

"We needed to back it up after the fantastic draw on Tuesday, so to back it up and win here - we've got to keep backing it up with result after result," Wild said.

"The pressure will continue lads so strap yourselves in for this rollercoaster because it's going to get bumpy."

On the absence of forward Zak Dearnley, Wild said: "Zak's fit, he's trained, he's done his running.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"The only person injured now is Kieran Green, everybody else now is fully fit."

Defender Jay Benn was also not involved.

"As we've done with a lot of our young players, we'll drop them in and drop them out," Wild said.

"We need to do that with young players.

"I think it's shown how much our young players have come to fruition, when you look at Jesse who got man of the match today.

"So we'll do that with young players, we have a long history of working with young players and we feel we have a formula for young players."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Matty Warburton was an unused substitute for the game having missed the draw at Notts County.

"He was fit, he's completely fit but I wanted to keep faith with the lads who'd done us so well on Tuesday night," Wild said.