FC Halifax Town: “He just ticked everything that we wanted” - New signings Gilmour and Waters both fit the bill for Shaymen boss Wild

Both players’ arrivals were announced this week, on one-year deals, Wild confirmed, Gilmour an attacking midfielder formerly of Tranmere and Stockport, and Waters a striker who spent last season at Torquay and before that played in the Football League for Cheltenham and Northampton.

On Gilmour, Wild said: “Harvey’s somebody we’ve all known for a while, Joe Sargison (first-team coach) coached him at Sheffield United as a young player, and we sort of got a nod and a wink that Stockport were going to release him.

“He fits the bill of that attacking midfielder, that number ten that’s really lively, young, that sort of Jack Earing mould really.

“He’s technically a very good receiver of the football, he works ever so hard and he’s left-footed, so in terms of the way we’re looking to play this season, he really ticks a lot of boxes.

“We like a good young player who we can develop and try and make better.

“He’s had that adversity of not really playing a lot at Stockport, although he did well at Tranmere the year before. He just ticked everything that we wanted.”

Wild says Gilmour’s best position is as a number ten.

“If we were to play a 4-3-3 he can play off the left or the right if need be,” he said.

And on Waters, the Town manager said: “I’ve always liked Billy, when Torquay came and played us up here, I thought Billy was excellent against us, not only with but without the ball, his energy, he’s a player that can play in any of the front-three (positions), he can play in the number ten as well if needed.

“He’s a goalscorer, a play-off-the-big-man-goalscorer, and I feel like we needed somebody we could trust, proven, that would score us goals but would press from the front and allow us to get a high-press on a lot more, and we felt that he brings that to us.”

When asked if there was much competition for either player’s signature, Wild said: “We get in there early on with Harvey, so I don’t know if there was much because we were the first in the queue.

“But Billy had a few options, but again, he believed our football offer was a sound offer and he wanted to move back up north, he’s a northern lad, and wanted to ply his football with us, which is great.”