FC Halifax Town 2-0 Hartlepool: Carry on like that, and you'll be fine, says Young

Second-half goals from Nathan Hotte and Ben Tomlinson ensured Halifax recorded only their second win in 11 games in-front of new manager Jamie Fullarton.

Town are now 18th in the National League - four points clear of the drop zone.

“We’ve not had much luck since I’ve been interim manager so I’d be lying if I didn’t think it was heading for a draw,” Young said.

“I was even thinking ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if it hits one of us on the backside and ends up in our net!’

“But we kept going. I was always going to put Mike (Fandop-Talom) on with 15, 20 minutes to go. I thought Shaun Tuton ran his socks off and gave their two centre-halves a tough time.

“I thought Ben Tomlinson was outstanding. I’m being picky, they were all brilliant. The attitude and commitment of our players was phenomenal.

“If they carry on with that they’ll be fine.”

“A bit more luck and concentration at times and we possibly could have had three wins since I’ve been here.

“I thought we’ve played really well in all three games, but we’ve switched off in moments.

“We harped on about concentration tonight, and they’ve been outstanding.

“We’ve been really short of numbers. We’ve lost Josh Macdonald, Danny Clarke, Tom Denton and Josh Wilde.

“But tonight was an accumulation of all we’ve put in trying to get the lads to work from a base and break from there.

“I’m made up for them because it’s difficult when you lose a manager, particularly a popular manager like Billy.

“I’ve tried to keep it as low-key as I can. But I’m pleased to leave my role as interim manager with a win, but more so the performance.

“To see them carry out all our preparation work virtually to the letter is great.

“Jamie knows he’s got a good group to work with.”

Young added: “I thought the effort and commitment, especially the likes of Ben Tomlinson, who hasn’t played a lot of football, Nathan Hotte hasn’t, shows the togetherness and endeavour of the group.

“And if you’ve got that in football, and you get a bit of luck, you go a long way.

“Don’t get me wrong, we need to add bodies. We’ve brought Fondop-Talom in, who is someone I’ve been tracking for a couple of months.

“I spoke to Jamie before we did it and he’s seen him too and was of the same opinion.

“He’s different to what we’ve got. He stretches teams in behind, which gives us another option.

“The biggest problem I’ve found is not so much the players but it’s very difficult to change formation because they’re very similar.

“I’ll speak to Jamie over the next few days about other possible areas he and I believe need strengthening, and try to identify players.”

When asked what he had said to the players after the game as his time as caretaker-manager came to an end, Young said: “I reinforced what we’ve spoken about. I thanked them for accepting me in, in very difficult circumstances and putting up with me because I’m quite meticulous and go over the same things over and over again, which probably gets on people’s nerves.

“It’s difficult when you’re part-time to get your message over on Tuesdays and Thursdays but we gave them as much information as possible on the opposition - I think that’s been key.

“And they’ve been keen to learn, asking me ‘what’s he doing?’, ‘who’s playing?’

“I can only see them going from strength to strength.

“People talk about us being one-dimensional, but we weren’t one-dimensional tonight.

“We passed, we moved, we created opportunities.”

On new manager Fullarton, Young said: “I think he was here last Saturday as well as tonight. I think he’ll have seen the effort, work-rate and commitment.

“I think we’ve given the players a base to build from which they believe in.

“I’ve gone through with him on the phone where I believe we’ve got deficiencies in the squad in terms of what we don’t have.

“Half the battle in football management is you’ve got to have people who want to run through brick walls for you - he’s got a dressing room full of that.

“So it’s down to the manager to get the best out of them and give them some tactical information. The rest is done by the 11 lads on the pitch.”

Young added: “I’ve had dealings with him (Fullarton) once before when he was at Bolton and I was at Chester.

“He’s an experienced football man, he’s been around. He’s going to have a lot of contacts because he’s been in the academy system.

“He’s managed in the league at Notts County.

“The board have interviewed candidates and he’s come out on top.”