FC Halifax Town: “It’s really important our new players get the chance to play at The Shay before the new season,” says Wild ahead of Boston friendly

FC Halifax Town return to action at The Shay for the first time in 189 days on Saturday when they host National League North side Boston (3pm).
Pete WildPete Wild
Pete Wild

The behind-closed-doors game will be Town’s third of pre-season, following a 2-1 defeat at Clitheroe last Tuesday, and a 2-1 win at Guiseley on Saturday.

The last time Town played at The Shay was against Ebbsfleet on March 14, and Wild is pleased a home friendly will be taking place.

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“It’s really important our new players get the chance to play at The Shay before the season so they get used to our home environment,” he said.

“I’m really pleased the club and the council have come to an agreement to let us play a game at The Shay before the season.”

Wild says he wants his side to implement what they have been working on in training.

“I want to see more of the work that’s been going on on the training ground in terms of how we want to play and our identity,” he said.

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“I want to see us defend the way we’ve been working on on the training ground, out of possession.

“Hopefully build on the work from the training ground this week, hopefully we see that against what I expect to be a strong Boston side.

“We’ve got to keep going, we’re not at 100 per cent of where we need to be, but we wouldn’t be in week three.

“We’re progressing well. The numbers that are coming back to me say to me that we’re getting the right mileage into the players.

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“We’re hoping that Boston come and stress us on Saturday and give us more things to think about physically, tactically and technically.”

The Town boss expects defenders Jay Benn and Nathan Clarke and wing-back Dom Tear to be fit for Saturday.

“On Tuesday night Nathan Clarke got a dead leg in a tackle, an impact injury,” Wild explained.

“Then we were doing the set-pieces on Friday and a few lads fell over, and Jay Benn jarred his knee, so that kept him out of Saturday.

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“Dom Tear’s back in with us now, Danny Williams is probably a week off being fit.”

Reflecting on Town’s 2-1 win at Guiseley on Saturday, Wild said: “Sometimes you get in the car and you’re trying to play through in your mind what happened - it took me a bit of time to piece together what had happened.

“We’d picked up a couple of knocks on the Friday and that meant we had to play lads a little bit longer than I wanted to, and meant I had to bring a couple more youth team lads in.

“So we were very young second-half and I came away thinking maybe we’d been put under a bit too much pressure, but then when I watched the game back, what we’ve been working on on the training ground in terms of how we want to play, there were some really good patterns, some really good in-possession patterns, some good shape out of possession.

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“We shared that with the players on Monday and, as a collective, we were really pleased with how the game had gone, and how we’d transferred what we’d done on the training ground into the game.

“The benefit of going back and watching the game was really pleasing.”A special mention must go to the young lads who acquitted themselves excellently second-half.

“They were put under quite a bit of set-piece pressure from Guiseley and I thought they young lads acquitted themselves well.

“That bodes well for the club in terms of how well the young lads have coped with the last two games.”

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When asked if he thought his side had improved on their performance against Clitheroe, Wild said: “I thought we played well last Tuesday and there were some really good patterns came out, but I don’t think you can read too much into these two games.

“It was about everybody getting 45 minutes, everybody proving to themselves they can play football again after such a long time out.

“Quite a lot of our new lads haven’t played football for six months so it’s going to take a bit of time to get back into a groove.

“That’s what last week was about, and starting to build some partnerships with lads you’ve never met before or played with.

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“Some lads are playing a different system to what they’ve played for or not played for a long time, so it was a really useful week’s work.

“Now we move towards Boston where we can start to put some structure together and start to get 60 minutes out of a team and see how that goes.

“It’s now looking at who’s best with who, what moments in the game would suit which players better.

“We’ve now got competition in every position on the pitch, apart from sub goalkeeper.”Everybody’s got an opportunity here, and the group allows us to have different combinations with different people.”

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