FC Halifax Town: "Everything's just clicked for me this season," says Shaymen's top scorer Waters

The striker scored six goals in 31 games for Torquay last season, but made more appearances off the bench than from the start for The Gulls.

This season, no Town player has started more league games than Waters, or scored more goals than his 16, which equals his best ever tally in one campaign.

"I set targets at the start of the year in terms of goals and things like that," he said.

"I think I've got 16 now and that's equalled the most I've ever got in a season, so I'm just looking to build on that now and get as many as I can.

"I've always wanted to get 20 in a season, so until I get that I won't be happy.

"I think it's important to set goals at the start of the year so you can work towards them.

"But if somebody had said I'd get 16 goals by mid February I'd have bit your hand off, so I'm really pleased so far."

Prior to his time at Torquay, Waters had three seasons at Northampton - prompted by that 16-goal campaign at Cheltenham - but again made more substitute appearances than starts and was loaned out three times.

"The main thing really is just playing week-in, week-out," he said when asked what was different about his time at Halifax to produce such an impressive run of form.

"Obviously the gaffer's trusted me to play down the middle, although in the past month I've been out wide, which is fine and I'm still getting goals from there.

"But just being given the platform to go out and play.

"And the way we play as a team suits me.

"I'm just really enjoying myself, I'm playing with a smile on my face as much as I can. Everything's just clicked this season for me."

It's been inevitable that Town's eye-catching season so far has resulted in bigger clubs circling for their star performers, and their manager, but Waters says he is just focusing on his football.

"I'm 27 now, I've been that way before when I was a young kid, when I was 21, 22, chasing a move," he said.

"You want that move because you want to play as high as possible.

"But now your priorities change and I'll I've wanted to do this season is just enjoy playing.

"I think that's probably why I've been having my best scoring season because I'm just enjoying it.

"January was never a case of I was going to get my head turned because I think you'd be a fool to leave a club where there's something special going on.

"I didn't hear anything, I'm not one of these players that likes the attention or listens to rumours about things like that, so I've just knuckled down and cracked on with it."

Waters did go nine matches without a goal before netting two in the 3-1 win at Dagenham and Redbridge at the end of January.

"You go a couple and you think 'right, OK', then a couple more and you're thinking 'I need a goal soon' and before you know it, you're eight games in and you're thinking 'oh my word, when's it going to come?'," he said.

"Maybe you start over-thinking it, and sometimes it's just a case of getting that little bit of luck where you can maybe get a tap-in and then you're in.

"I'm an instinctive finisher so sometimes if I'm given too much time to think about it, that's maybe when I make a wrong decision. I'm better when I just hit it.

"I'm buzzing to get two against Dagenham and then get another one at the weekend, although we didn't get the result we wanted, but on a personal level, to be back scoring again, it's what I need.

"When I did go those games without scoring, I was disappointed with some of my performances, I think I was poor in a few of the games.

"But in some other games I thought I did well and there was everything there other than the goal.

"I don't get too down when I'm not scoring but it does sometimes come in patches with me, so hopefully I can go on another run now and I've had my season blip for not scoring."

Waters has recently been playing as a left-winger since the loan signing of forward Aaron Martin from Harrogate.

"It's a different game, but I still enjoy it," he said.

"You've got to change your game up, I don't mind that, and if the gaffer needs me to do a job there then I'm more than happy to.

"The team's been doing well so that's the main thing.

"There's certain games where you're up top and you're thinking 'I'd rather be out wide here' and vice versa, so you've just got to take it in your stride and try and be as dangerous as you can."

The Shaymen go into Saturday's home game with Dover fourth in the National League, eight points behind leaders Stockport but with two games in hand.

"I'm really confident," Waters said of their promotion chances. "We've consistently stayed up there so far this season and we've proved that, even with injuries and when things go against us, we've still got results.

"So I'm going into (the rest of the season) confidently. We've got a great side and we've probably exceeded other people's expectations, whether that's our own fans or other teams in the league.

"I think now people are realising that we're a force to be reckoned with and they're paying us the respect we've probably earned this season.

"But that's not to say that we've cracked it, we know that we're still competing against some competitive teams in this league so we're still working hard every day and always looking to the next game."

Waters added: "There's definitely a belief, even after getting knocked out of the Trophy on Saturday, we're all saying 'OK, let's just get promoted now'.

"We wanted to win the Trophy but it was like 'right, OK, let's make sure we get promoted then', whether that's winning the league or going through the play-offs.

"When we're on top of our game I think we can beat anyone in this league, I think we've proved that so far this season, but it's whether we're on our game.

"But there's definitely belief in the camp, all the lads here get on so well, there's no bad eggs, everybody gets on with everybody, so we definitely all believe it."