FC Halifax Town: Wild’s rallying call for Shaymen’s crunch play-off clash

The Shaymen face arguably their biggest game in six years on Friday in their National league play-off eliminator, which will be screened live on BT Sport.

It is the first time Town have reached the play-offs in the division since 2014, when they lost to Cambridge, and marks an astonishing achievement by Wild, in his first season at the helm.

When asked what his final message will be to his players, the Town boss said: “Stay strong and be brave, that’s probably been my message all year.

“Whatever happens, we stay strong and resolute, and we make sure we’re brave in everything we do.”

Wild says the resilient and resolute nature of his squad is their biggest asset going into the play-offs.

“Like I’ve said all season, good teams have good dressing rooms,” he said.

“Our team-spirit, our never-say-die attitude across the season, the amount of times people have written us off and we’ve come back fighting.

“Our robustness to see games out when we do take the lead, we’ve been able to see games out.

“I think we rely a lot on our team spirit, our organisation and making sure we’re tough to play against and hard to beat.

“I think when we’re tough to play against and hard to beat, we’re at our strongest. Luckily enough that’s been the case more often than not, and that’s why we’ve done well.”

Wild feels “set-pieces and mistakes” will be where the game is won and lost, but doesn’t feel the lack of supporters at the game will make much difference.

“I don’t think it’ll affect them (Boreham Wood) that much because they’re used to not playing in-front of a lot of fans, which is no disrespect to them, that’s just how it is,” he said.

“And the fact we’re the away side and we’d have had fewer fans there anyway, from our side of things I don’t think it’ll make much difference.

“If anybody needs the fans to get them up for this game then I think they’re in the wrong business.

“They’ll need an inner drive to keep going and keep pushing, but if somebody needs motivating for these sort of games then they’re in the wrong business.”

Wild is full of admiration for the job Boreham Wood boss Luke Garrard has done and is expecting a massive test.

“First and foremost, what Luke (Garrard) has done down there, which every year and repeats and improves on, is nothing short of amazing, and he deserves a lot of credit for how he sets his teams up, and how tactically bright his teams are.

“I’m expecting them to be very tactically bright, to be sharp, strong and aggressive, which they were up here.

“They’ve got pace up-front that can hurt teams.

“I’m expecting a really tough contest and we’ll have to be at our absolute best to compete.

“But that’ll be every game we go into. If we’re not at our best we fall short, so we’re going to have to match them physically, their running and their aggression.

“Then ensure we remain switched on tactically because they’re tactically bright.

“He sets his teams up with a purpose, they’ve got a structure to them.

“They understand what they’re about, and them having a structure and a plan will make it a really good football match because we have a structure and a plan, and we know what we’re about.

“It’ll be the team that makes the least mistakes, the team that starts the brightest and remains sharp in the mind, that will come out on top.

“That will be the case in every game in the play-offs.”