FC Halifax Town: “We’re looking to try and impose ourselves” says Wild ahead of FA Trophy clash with Hartlepool

Jake Hyde limped out of Town’s 2-1 defeat at Solihull on Tuesday with a hamstring injury, and is doubtful for this Saturday.

It wasn’t clear whether Nyal Bell, who is on loan from Stockport, will be allowed to play for Town in the FA Trophy by his parent club.

That could leave Gevaro Nepomuceno and Jamie Allen as Wild’s only options up-front, unless a new face can be added to his squad over the next couple of days.

Wild is open to possibly extending Bell’s loan deal.

He said: “He’s getting better, he hasn’t played a lot of football before he came here, sporadic bursts of football, so some weeks you’re going to see some really good stuff and other weeks you might not see the best of him.

“I was hoping Jake Hyde would help him get better and better and unfortunately that didn’t happen on Tuesday.”

Allen could come straight into the starting line-up against Hartlepool after recovering from a knee injury.

Wild said: “He should be back in contention for Saturday, he’s back running, and twisting and turning now, so I’d expect to see him back among the squad on Saturday.”

On the first of three games with Hartlepool on consecutive Saturdays, Wild said: “I’m looking forward to it, we’ve got to keep our style, keep our culture right and go into Saturday full of hope and expectation.”

Town will aim to do better in the FA Trophy than they did in the FA Cup, when they crashed out to lower-league South Shields in October.

“We all know why we didn’t have a run in the cup, because we all had Covid,” said Wild.

“We always want good cup runs, and Saturday’s no different.

“We’re looking to try and impose ourselves on Saturday and make sure we do well in the competition.”

When asked whether he would rotate his squad for the game, Wild said: “We’ll see. There were some absolutely shocking tackles on Tuesday night that went unpunished and I need to see how my boys are before I decide on what I do for Saturday.

“We’ve got to make sure we make the right decisions and pick the right team.”

Wild says midfielder Rueben Noble-Lazarus is still part of his plans, despite him not featuring for the club so far this season.

“He’s struggled to get match sharpness. We’ve tried to be as careful as we can with the injuries he’s had, but he’s struggling for that match sharpness to get him back to where he needs to be.”

And on midfielder Kian Spence, whose loan at Scarborough expires on January 1, Wild said: “He obviously hasn’t played a lot but he’s been training with us every day, he looks sharp, he looks ready actually.

“I’ve been really pleased with how he’s developing. I might have a decision to make about what we do with him in January.”