FC Halifax Town: Youngsters need to go out on loan, says Heath

Heath named a side combining fringe first-team players and younger players for the County Cup tie on Tuesday, which saw eight different scorers contribute to the victory.

Town were 4-0 up at half-time thanks to goals from Shiraz Khan, Jack Johnson, Elliott Harrison and Matty Kosylo.

The lead was extended after the interval through Isaac Baldwin, Richard Peniket, who captained the side, and substitutes James Sunderland and Marko Basic.

Ossett got a goal back through Nathan Joynes.

Heath said of the club’s younger players: “They’re still a while away from the first-team yet.

“They need more experience. The jump we’d be asking them to make is huge.

“The ideal scenario is to get them out on loan.

“That’s difficult because we have a County Cup game coming up and if we send them out on loan they wouldn’t return in time for that.

“So we might get that County Cup game moved forward a bit which would enable us to let them play in that game then hopefully get them out on loan.

“Ideally it would be to an Evo-Stik Premier club for a month or two - that’s the next step for them.”

On the victory, Heath said: “It was excellent all-round.

“The first-team players’ attitude was excellent towards it.

“Shiraz khan, Elliott Harrison, Isaac Baldwin and Ross Barrows have trained with the first-team for a while now and they were really good - it was good to see them play in a competitive game.

“Jack Johnson was superb at the back.

“We dominated the game but it was a test for the young lads, but they handled it well.”

Winger Connor Hughes left the club last week to join Worcester City after failing to start a game since Heath’s appointment.

“Connor was fantastic to work with, his attitude was great,” Heath said.

“He wanted to play week in, week out, but that’s something we couldn’t give him.”

On whether any new signings were on the horizon, the Town boss added: “We’re always looking to strengthen but the difficulty is we’re FC Halifax Town.

“If we enquire about any player, suddenly people ask inflated prices.

“We’re still working on getting players in and trying to improve the squad.”