FC Halifax Town 7-4 Maidenhead United: "It was the sublime to the ridiculous" says Wild after astonishing FA Cup tie

Halifax were 4-3 up at half-time after a remarkable first 45 minutes, before another four goals arrived after the interval.

"I think it was the sublime to the ridiculous, for a team that's kept eight out of ten clean sheets, you wouldn't have known," Wild said.

"I think we defended poorly, I don't think we defended well at all against strong, aggressive centre-forwards, and we know what Maidenhead bring, we've worked on that, and we just didn't deliver in that department today.

"On the flip side of that, tactically how we worked to try and beat Maidenhead, get round them, pull their full-backs out, get into the box, whip balls across the box, we scored some of the best goals we've seen all season.

"So it's a fantastic in-possession display, but a horrendous out of possession display.

"And I don't use the word horrendous lightly, I thought we were horrendous out of possession.

"We're all better than that, that's what disappoints me most and that's what I'll go home and reflect on tonight."

When asked if he had ever been involved in a game like it before, the Town boss said: "No, I don't want to be involved in one of them ever again.

"We just made it hard for ourselves, it could have been so much easier, but you get days like that.

"There were a few choice words at half-time that is out of character for me, but that needed saying.

"It takes a lot for me to lose my head but I felt I had to today because we can't defend like that."

Wild felt that every Maidenhead goal was avoidable.

"Every one of them, from stopping crosses, to winning first and second balls, being bumped off the ball, giving the ball away," he said.

"Yeah, rubbish out of possession.

"But don't get me wrong, we're great to watch aren't we.

"I'd pay to watch us.

"We play some great stuff."

On what it was like to watch as a manager, Wild said the game was: "Rubbish, horrible."

"You watch them play and when we're good, you think 'oh wow, yeah, that came from the training ground, we worked on that yesterday, well done, brilliant'.

"And then you go 'what are we doing?', that's all I can describe it as."

Wild says he'd now like a home tie in the next round.

"It's fantastic, for the players to be in the second round of the FA Cup, for the staff and most importantly for the club, for the financial rewards that come with it.

"I'm really pleased, we'd targeted a cup run this year and to be still in the cup in December, I'm over the moon.

"This is now the one you want to get through (the second round) because you're so close to the big boys."

The second-half saw the return of midfielder Luke Summerfield from his injury lay-off.

"We'd targeted minutes for Summers today, he needed tackles, fifty-fifties, he's had three or four of them today to see how the knee held up."

On winger Jamie Allen's knee injury, Wild said: "We're a week into it so probably another couple of weeks and hopefully he'll be back."

On midfielder Martin Wood, Wild said: "He's had the all-clear from the doc now so we'll build him back up and hopefully see him back over the next couple of weeks."

And on the absence of midfielder Harvey Gilmour, the Town boss said: "Harvey was ill this morning so he had to drop out, wasn't worth the risk."