FC Halifax Town: Away performances have merited more points, says Fullarton

Halifax have won one, drawn two and lost two of their first five away games, starting with their 2-0 opening day win at Braintree, which preceded 2-1 defeats at Salford and Boreham Wood and draws at Sutton and Wrexham.

Speaking ahead of a long trip to mid-table Maidenhead on Saturday, Fullarton said: “It’s important to always add context to results. Statistics never lie, but it’s how you interpret them.

“I’m a percentage type person. Repeated actions give you repeated outcomes, so we’re looking at performances, at repeated certain behaviours to enable us to be in a good position to win games, because we’re trying to win every game we play.

“Irrelevant of the points return from away games, I think you’ve got to look at performances.

“Most of our away games have been against teams that will be challenging for a top seven place. Playing away from home against these teams, we have shown that we are competing at that level with them.

“The performances haven’t been fully reflected in the results. But I reflect less and focus more on what’s happening in the next month.”

Town go into the Maidenhead game without having played a midweek match, which came after facing five games in the space of 15 days from the defeat at Boreham Wood on August 25 to the draw against Leyton Orient at The Shay last Saturday.

And Fullarton says his players will have benefited from their game-free week.

“I don’t think it’s recharging batteries physically, I think it’s mentally with players at times, and you’re looking to use those breaks from midweek games wisely to recharge and refocus so you’re ready to go again,” he said.

“The National League is the fifth league in English football. There’s a lot of travel and games at this stage; by the end of September we’ll have played almost a third of our season.

“Having time on the training pitch to work on is a positive. From a player’s point of view, it enables the to recharge those mental batteries ready to go again.

“But I don’t think anyone that’s seen the 10 games so far could label our players as not being able to perform physically and go to the max in every game. I feel they’ve shown that capacity and willingness.”

Midfielders Cameron King, Sanmi Odelusi and Mekhi McLeod have found opportunities limited so far this season, with King making one start and five substitute appearances and Odelusi and McLeod only two appearances off the bench so far.

“I regularly refer to the group, and the group is important,” added Fullarton when asked about the trio. “Every day that we train, every one of the squad is working to a level where it makes competition for places.

“It’s a great position to be in as a manager to have a group, and hopefully once the injured players, who are making good progress, are fully fit, it will give me difficult decisions to make.

“Whoever’s in and does well stays in. There’s four reasons players don’t start in games - injured, suspended, there’s a tactical change, or they’re not doing well enough.

“With the performances and results we’ve got over a period of time, it’s down to being patient. And when you get the opportunity, take it. That’s the same at every club at every level.”