FC Halifax Town 1-0 Yeovil Town: "I think that's the best we've played in a long while," says Shaymen boss Wild

Substitute Zak Dearnley scored the winner to seal a deserved win for Town, who were the dominant side for much of the game.

"I think that's the best we've played in a long while, especially first-half I thought we were excellent, and especially first half an hour, I thought we moved the ball really well," Wild said.

"They made a tactical change, they were 4-4-2 but after half an hour they went 4-3-3 to contain us. They changed their mindset after half an hour, which is a complement to the players.

"But I just thought we played some really good stuff and I'm dead pleased.

"I put on the bottom of our notes before we went out that we've got to believe in the process, about how we're playing, and keep playing the way we play, and play with freedom.

"And I think we've seen that, it's a team that wants to play and play with freedom.

"I know a lot of the fans would like us to lump it in the box, but that's not what's got us success, and you look at the goal, it comes from patient, Halifax-style play."

Asked whether he felt a goal was always inevitable from his team, Wild said: "I can't say that. We threw Stenno (Matty Stenson) on to try and get a goal, then we went 4-2-4 to really try and get a goal, and it worked.

"Dearns (Zak Dearnley), he always says to me 'I'll get you a goal' and he was proved right today."

On what pleased him most about his team's performance, the Town boss said: "Just the way we moved the ball, that was excellent today.

"And probably for 75 minutes the way we regained the ball when we lost it.

"I thought the last five minutes of the first half, when they hit the bar, we'd come off tracking runners, sprinting to get the ball back, and that's why they got the chance.

"The one thing I did say at half-time was 'we've got to work harder out of possession to win the ball back'."

On match-winner Dearnley, Wild said: "He's a goalscorer, we brought him here for days like this.

"He scores goals, and the one thing he'll say is 'I'll get you a goal'.

"He makes really good runs, he's always between the sticks and he scores goals."

Yeovil had beaten leaders Stockport in their last game, but were outplayed for the majority of the contest.

"I thought they were excellent against Stockport last week and I'd really gone to town with the players about how I wanted them to play because of how well Yeovil had done," Wild said.

"I think we nullified what they were good at and their change of shape tells you that, because they've gone from trying to get at us to trying to contain us.

"That's a complement to the players."

Town are now guaranteed a play-off place, but Wild downplayed that, instead focusing on Monday's game at Eastleigh.

"Well that's fantastic, but we've got to keep going," he said.

"We've got three games to go, so we'll go to Eastleigh and try to get a positive result."

Wild insisted there can't be any cause for celebration over Town guaranteeing a top seven finish.

"I don't think we can, I think we've got to just keep going now," he said.

"There's a bigger prize isn't there, so until that bigger prize is out of reach, we've got to keep going."

Midfielder Luke Summerfield missed the game, having been ruled out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury.

"Unfortunately him and Jesse (Debrah) were running for the ball on Monday and he's just gone over on his ankle," Wild said.

"He's done similar to what Greeny did."

On captain Niall Maher, who also missed the game due to an abductor injury, Wild said: "He's 50-50 for Monday, but we'll see how it settles down."

Read more from the Town boss tomorrow (Sunday) on the Courier website.