FC Halifax Town: Shaymen forced to cancel Saturday’s friendly with Salford

It is the latest in a series of disruptions to Halifax’s pre-season preparations, after their first warm-up match with Frickley was called-off, before scheduled home matches with Doncaster and Darlington were moved to their opponents’ venues, and manager Jamie Fullarton left the club.

Town say they will play a behind-closed-doors game instead on Saturday. The club said the game will have to be behind-closed-doors as the league teams available to play on Saturday have all stipulated this, and that Halifax RLFC have also moved their reserve fixtures and are not training on the pitch.

Calderdale Council have previously stated that the Shay pitch’s problem is that the grass roots are not going deep enough, there’s also a very high sand content and there needs to be more fibre in the pitch.

Their National League season begins on August 3 with a trip to Ebbslfeet, before their first scheduled home game against Hartlepool United on August 6.