FC Halifax Town 2-0 Dagenham and Redbridge: Town boss Wild "ecstatic" after opening day win

Pete WildPete Wild
Pete Wild
FC Halifax Town boss Pete Wild says he was "ecstatic" after his side got their 2020-21 campaign off to the perfect start with a 2-0 home win over Dagenham and Redbridge.

Midfielders Luke Summerfield, with a penalty, and Jack Earing were on the scoresheet for Town, who thoroughly deserved their opening-day victory.

"We wanted to be more aggressive as a team, with and without the ball, and dictate play, and I thought you saw that today," said the Town boss.

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"I thought we commanded from really early on, I thought we were commanding with the ball and we caused them a lot of early pressure.

"It's been a long week, I'll be honest, because of injuries, and then on Tuesday I had to start trying to recruit two lads to play up-front for today.

"The week started off horrendously and it's gradually got a bit better.

"I had 15 and a half fit players today, Kieran Green's been ill all week, Jamie Allen was only fit for half-an-hour.

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"Gold and Gevaro haven't really played any football pre-season for anybody.

"So it's been a thrown together team and to get that out of them, I'm ecstatic.

"I'm ecstatic at the way we played because that's exactly how we've been working for the last five weeks on how we wanted to play.

"There were some tired legs later on and we invited pressure on but I never felt like we were stretched or we were going to concede.

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"Special mention to the back three, who I thought were excellent and dealt with their aerial threat and their long balls, which allows our front boys to go and score us the goals.

"It was a well-taken pen by Summers and then a really well-taken goal by Jack Earing, who's really developing into an excellent young man."

Wild added: "We've pushed them pre-season. One thing I didn't think we were in the play-offs was fit enough, so we pushed them, which is probably why we've had so many knocks, bumps and injuries.

"But we had to push them harder. We've also done lots and lots of tactical work with them, lots of 11 v 11's, lots of 'if they do this, we're going to do that'.

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"So that's paid dividends today, credit to every member of staff here who's worked on that.

"But it's only one game. We've got to go and back it up now, go to Stockport on Tuesday night and give another good account of ourselves, and we intend to do that.

"It's great to start with a win, and a clean sheet, long may that continue."

Gevaro Nepomuceno and Gold Omotayo started up-front together for Town after their signings on short-term deals were announced an hour before kick-off.

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"I've known about Gold all summer but I didn't go for him because his wage demands were a bit out of my league," Wild said.

"But he didn't get anything sorted and fair play to the chairman, he's given me the money to go out this week and get them both.

"They're two players I know well. Gold was excellent here against us last year and is something we hadn't got, a big brute of a centre-forward.

"He's more than that, he's a good footballer as well, and he'll only get better with more games.

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"To say we got 90 minutes out of him today when he's not really played any pre-season, fair play to the kid.

"And I've known Gevaro for a lot of years through my time at Oldham. I know what he can do when fit.

"He's got to get fitter, but to say we've just dropped him in, I got 60 minutes out of him so I'm over the moon.

"When you get Gevaro fit you're going to see some player.

"He wanted too much money earlier in the summer! But I've had a word with him, got my arm round him.

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"He wants to enjoy his football and one thing you do at this football club is enjoy your football."

Wild says that is that in terms of new signings and will be working with a 21-man squad.

"Special mention must go to Jay Benn as well, making his senior debut," said Wild.

"One thing we wanted to do when we came to this football club was produce our own, nothing would've given us greater pleasure.

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"Special mention must go to Stevey Nichol and the academy boys today for producing Jay Benn, and what a proud day for him and his family. I'm buzzing for him.

"He was presented with his shirt by Clarkey this morning, and he deserves it.

"He's been excellent pre-season, and I'm really happy for him and his family."

Reuben Noble-Lazarus, Niall Maher and Jack Senior will return to training on Monday.

On striker Jake Hyde, Wild said: "We're hoping Hydey will get an injection in his back on Monday and then we'll hopefully have him back."

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