FC Halifax Town: Shaymen boss Wild wants a fast start from his side against Dover on Saturday

If the game goes ahead, it will be Halifax' s first league game in three weeks, since their 3-1 win at Dagenham and Redbridge on January 29, against a Dover side who have won just once in 31 games this season, and haven't won an away game since February 2020.

"I've been watching them over the last couple of days, I actually thought when we played them down there that they were better than I expected them to be," Wild said of his team's 3-1 win at Crabble in November.

"They really had a good go at us, they really made it difficult for us and I'm expecting more of the same.

"One thing that you know about Andy Hessenthaler's sides is that they'll work as hard as they can.

"You can see they haven't given up in the games I'm watching, they are still working as hard as they can, making it as difficult as possible for teams and I expect that again on Saturday."

Wild says he wants to avoid a turn-up-and-win mentality in his squad against a team 33 points from safety, in part due to their points deduction after failing to complete their fixtures last season.

"Yeah, but that's the same every week," he said.

"It's really about being on the front foot, getting out of the blocks as quickly as we can and trying to take care of business as quick as we can."

The Town manager says he is expecting Dover to sit back and try to frustrate his side.

"Yeah I am. If I remember down there, they actually came at us and tried to win the ball back, so I actually think there might be a bit of that as well, so I'm expecting both really," he said.

"So it's important we get our game together, which I thought we did on Saturday after half-an-hour, and from watching the game back, from 30 to 85 minutes, we played some really good stuff.

"We need to do that from the first whistle against these on Saturday."

But Wild says Dover's dire record this season is unimportant compared to how his team approaches the match.

"It's not relevant, we just need to take care of business," he said. "It's about what we do from 3pm to 5pm on Saturday that matters and nobody else really.

"We've got to make sure we take care of business appropriately.

"If we win, we're supposed to win, if we get beat, it's 'oh my god, how are you getting beat?', so there's no win for us on Saturday.

"We just need to make sure we come out on the right side of the game."

Wild says defenders Tyrell Warren and Niall Maher and forward Zak Dearnley should all be available, with Warren set to replace the suspended Jay Benn after his dismissal against Notts County last Saturday.

"I spoke to Jay Benn this week and told him not to worry, told him we trust him, he's an invaluable part of our team," Wild said.

"He will have bumps in the road across his career, he just need to keep learning and improving.

"We should all be looking after one of our own and I'd encourage the fans to do the same because he is one of our own, and a bright young prospect for the club."

On midfielder Martin Woods, who limped out of last Saturday's match, Wild said: "We're hopeful that his calf's not too serious. He'll be checked again on Thursday morning to see if he's available to train or whether he needs a couple more days to build it back up."

And on injury-victim Kieran Green's progress, Wild said: "We've tried to progress his rehab this week and he's felt a bit sore.

"He's still on track for probably the end of the month."