FC Halifax Town: Relegation decider is biggest game in new club's history, says chairman

Halifax will ensure survival if they win, or if they match or better Guiseley’s result against Torquay and Altrincham’s at Braintree.

The Shaymen face Grimsby in the FA Trophy final on May 22, but Bosomworth also attaches less importance to that match than Saturday’s game.

“They’re all big games when they come round,” he said.

“We’ve had games for promotion like Brackley - that was a vital game for us.

“Lancaster - vital game, the points we got against Garforth - vital.

“But in the latest run of things, of course it’s more important.

“This is more important to me than Nantwich.

“The heart says you would like a day out at Wembley but the head says we want to be in this league next season.

“At least we’ve got that chance but there’s still loads of work to do.

“There’s 90 minutes of hard football to go.”

The Town chairman is hoping for strength in numbers on Saturday and believes the crowd have a big part to play in the result.

“We’d got ourselves into a good position and then the results over the last four or five games before last week conspired against us,” he said.

“I think we’d lost four out of five and that brought us right back into the mix again.

“But the Forest Green result has put it back into our hands so all we can now say is that we need one last pull from the fans.

“They’re going to play such a vital part on Saturday and we want it packed to the rafters and as vociferous as possible, driving the lads on.

“We need 2,000 to 3,000 fans there on Saturday, and if we can get that with them all singing their hearts out and the drum banging, creating an atmosphere, hopefully we can do the job and stay in the league.

“I’m sure the fans will be desperate for us to do it. As much as we’re all looking forward to Wembley, in a lot of ways it doesn’t mean anything if you get relegated.

“We don’t want relegation, but if it happens we’ll dust ourselves off and come back.”

Bosomworth says he has felt the strain watching The Shaymen over the last few weeks as they threw away a two-point advantage over the bottom four before climbing back above the drop zone with their 1-0 win at Forest Green last Staurday.

“It’s awful, I’ve hated it,” he added.

“You just don’t enjoy it at all.

“You’re looking at other results, are we going to concede, how will that affect the table?

“Particularly the Aldershot and Kidderminster games - it was in our own hands to nail our safety there.

“After we’d played so well against Boreham Wood, especially in the first-half, we really seemed to carry that on against a team who didn’t have much to play for and had a very poor away record in Aldershot.

“So to lose 2-0 at home was disappointing. It was a soft goal just after half-time and then you’re exposed for the second because you’re pushing on to get a result.

“Then you go to Kidderminster and to be fair to them they were the better side - but with those two results you’re in a real battle after that.

“At this time of year results are notoriously odd and we’ve got one of them because Forest Green isn’t a happy hunting ground for us.

“It’s a vital win and it’s in our own hands now.

“I just really hope we can go to Wembley as a National League side.

“It would take the shine off that game.”