FC Halifax Town: Hotte happy to avoid Ferriby's away day blues

The Town utility man opted to stay in the National League North with The Shaymen rather than taking on the Conference Premier with the Humberside club.

Ferriby have won just two of their first seven games and are two points above the relegation zone with away defeats at Dover and Aldershot already under their belts, precisely the kind of form Hotte was fearing if he stayed there.

“When Billy (Heath) asked me to come - it’s a massive club is Halifax - so I didn’t really think about it for too long,” he said.

“We did amazingly well to go up last season at North Ferriby but the chances of them staying up are quite slim and travelling all around the country and getting beaten most weeks wasn’t really too appealing!

“I’d rather come to Halifax and hopefully have some more success and go up again.

“We’ve got 20 good players who will all think they should be in the starting eleven so I think we’ve got more than enough quality for us to be up there by the end of the season.”

Hotte insists the sense of unity in the Town squad is as strong as it was at North Ferriby last season, and says a good team spirit is the key ingredient to Heath’s success.

“Billy always gets players, regardless of their ability, who will work hard for him,” he said.

“If you work hard you normally end up getting results.

“There’s no bad eggs at the club and the team spirit genuinely is good. Everyone wants the same thing and everyone’s pulling in the same direction to get us where we need to be.

“If somebody’s not buying into what Billy wants to do, then they won’t be here, it’s as simple as that.

“Everybody’s got to work for each other. It’s all about the team.”

Hotte was a striker as a youngster and was at Hull from aged eight to 18.

He joined North Ferriby then Farsley, when they were in the Conference North, and then played in the North East Counties League for a few seasons before signing for Bradford Park Avenue, where he became captain.

He then rejoined Ferriby, where he won promotion last season.

“It’s a hard league. This is the hardest I’ve ever known this league,” he added.

“There are some big teams in it this season and nobody’s got the divine right to go walking it, it’s going to be hard work.

“It’s early days though and I’m sure we’ll be right up there at the end of the season.

“It’s who’s consistent over the course of the season.

“At Fylde I don’t think we played that badly and we could easily have got a result.

“We weren’t at the races on Monday, we were poor.

“We just looked a bit tired and their two centre-halves handled Dents (Tom Denton) really well.

“We should’ve mixed it up a bit more when it wasn’t working playing balls up to Dents, we should’ve got the ball out wide to Matty Kosylo and Josh Macdonald.

“But we’ve just got to pick ourselves up and go again.”