FC Halifax Town: "The review process is already underway before we get home" - Behind-the-scenes on the road with The Shaymen

Tom Scargill joined them on the journey to Plainmoor and back for a behind-the-scenes look.

It's 41 hours, of which the actual football takes up just 90 minutes.

But that hour-and-a-half is the centre of it all, around which everything is planned and arranged to give the team the best possible chance of winning.

Torquay is Town's longest journey of the campaign, a gargantuan 588-mile round trip, but there are plenty of others like it - Eastleigh, Dover, Aldershot, the list goes on - that require the team to travel the day before.

Planning starts about two months in advance, with an itinerary drawn-up a week beforehand.

"I like to stay no more than 30 minutes away (from the ground), although sometimes that's not possible," says Town boss Pete Wild.

"You're talking 10 double rooms, a single room, Friday evening meal, Saturday breakfast and pre-match meal, meeting rooms, so it's not cheap.

"We come up with the itinerary of when we're going to travel, and where we're going to pick the lads up because they come from different parts of the country.

"We try to minimise the time they're on the road and I like to get there quickly. If we can train beforehand, we will, but going to somewhere like Torquay is a long enough time travelling as it is, so sometimes we'll just get to the hotel, where there might be a pool we can get the lads in, or a gym."

Wild and his backroom staff board the coach at 9.15am on Friday at The Shay having loaded the kits, equipment and essentials.

Players are then picked up en route, some near Manchester, some near Birmingham, before arriving at the hotel at 4.15pm.

"Me and Chris (Millington) are both big on detail, so things have got to be right. you've got to put yourself in the players' shoes at times and say 'if I was a player now, what would I want to be doing?', says Wild.

"Then you've got to factor in your team meetings and when you talk to them, what you say to them, and trying to minimise that time when there's nothing going on.

"We're lucky in that some lads like to play cards, some will play on their Playstations, and then there's lads who like to have a wander and find somewhere to have a coffee.

"So there's three or four different groups in that, so everyone's not just sat on their beds and doing nothing.

"Timing's are key, but they go wrong. We've done different things, like training halfway down, or before we leave, or not at all.

"It's getting the balance of what suits the players.

"I remember getting stuck in the traffic going to Bromley between a West Ham home game and some boxing at the O2. We rolled up at ten to two, but we'd set off in plenty of time."

There is an evening meal at 6.30pm, after which Wild addresses the squad.

The atmosphere is relaxed and informal, but when the manager speaks, the players listen, as Wild talks about what lies ahead, not just at Plainmoor tomorrow, but in the next two months.

"These long trips are part of how you conduct yourself as a professional footballer," says the Town boss.

"It's part of the game. The higher up you go, they have an overnight for every away game, and in the Premier League, a lot of teams stay overnight for home games.

"It's how you prepare yourself and conduct yourself. I call it personal organisation, and how you personally organise yourself over those weekends can determine whether we get a performance out of them or not.

"It's a lot of downtime for us as staff as well, and I like to use that wisely in terms of bringing the staff together and sitting round having a laugh and a joke.

"I know a lot of clubs have curfews but I think you've got to let the lads behave how they see fit.

"If it was a home game I wouldn't know what time they went to bed, so why would I put that on them away?

"Do what suits you is what I say. We trust the players to behave in the manner that's appropriate and 10 times out of 10 I get that.

"Some players find it tough to sleep before a game, some players are used to it.

"I'm not a great sleeper before games, because I'm running through in my head what's going to happen. So the longer the staff want to stay up and talk, the better for me."

Breakfast on Saturday morning is between 7am and 9am, followed by a pre-match meeting at 10am when the upcoming 90 minutes is brought sharply into focus.

After lunch, it's back on the coach, arriving at Plainmoor at shortly after 1pm.

"I think about everything I say. I normally make notes in my room, and go through it," he says.

"Friday night was an opportune moment to have a chat about the run-in.

"We've done scenario work with them using a flip chart - when the ball's over here, where we want players to be.

"We've done video analysis work with them, unit work with defenders, midfielders and attackers where they all present back to us.

"We try to make things different on the Friday night and make up for the time we don't get on the training ground.

"We try and use that time wisely, and then we use Saturday mornings for my last gee-up.

"At home games I do that at one o'clock in one of the rooms upstairs, and at away games it'll be to try and break the morning up.

"We'll have breakfast, then give them some final messages halfway through the morning. Less of me on a matchday, and more of them.

"I try and do my stuff mid-morning, and then next time they hear from me is when the teams are in at quarter past two."

After Ade Azeez's goal proves decisive in a tight, scrappy contest, the long journey back begins in a more reflective atmosphere.

"You have a lot of time to dwell as well, whereas after a home game, you're out with your family or whatever," says Wild.

"But on the bus you're going over it. Me and Chris will look back at the game. I find it hard to do that, but Chris is good at that.

"The review process is already underway before we get home, and that continues the day after when we meet up for a brew and discuss what happened, and then we're planning for next week.

"I think it's different for a game like Torquay when we did everything we could but just didn't get a result compared to coming back from a heavy defeat.

"But I always think 'there's another game next week' so we can't dwell on things.

"I want the bus to be as lively on the way down as it is on the way home so it's important spirits remain high, especially at this time of the season."

After the players have been dropped off in Birmingham and Manchester, it's gone midnight by the time the coach rolls up at The Shay.

That's one more ticked off the list at least. This weekend, they do it all over again for the visit to Eastleigh.

"It's tough financially on the club," says Wild. "We've got one of the lowest budgets in the league and it's stretched to the maximum.

"The thought process is maybe next year could we do another couple more (away trips) on the day, but then am I stretching the lads too thin doing that?

"Most teams will go on the day for the Tuesday nighters. We'll do day beds, so we'll get to the hotel for one o'clock, get the lads to bed for three or four hours, get them back up at five o'clock and ready for the game,

"There's no hard and fast way. This is where you've got to know your players and know what they want in these situations."