FC Halifax Town: Magic man Kosylo is back with a bang

The sight of the winger running with the ball at his feet is enough to get any defender backpedaling in fear.

And Kosylo has wasted little time getting back into the groove, scoring the only goal in Tuesday night’s 1-0 win over Macclesfield in the first round of the FA Trophy - his first goal in over three months.

It capped a typically lively performance from Kosylo, who was making his first start since October 28.

“I got injured on training on Noivember 9 and it’s just been annoying because it was a something-and-nothing tackle, and it’s resulted in me being out for nearly eight weeks,” he said.

“It’s been frustrating. I’m glad there was a bit of a strong tackle on me when I came on at Maidenead.

“I was umming and ahhing during the warm-up whether it was 100 per cent or not, and I don’t think it will be yet because it’s a ligament injury.

“But I’m glad to be back. I’m probably at my peak in terms of what I can be fitness-wise because I go to the gym and eat right.

“But match fitness is different. You can do fitness test, running and cardio as much as you want but match fitness is different. But I’m sure I’ll get that.

“If you get injured and it’s a blatantly obvious one like a broken bone then you can accept being out for a while.

“But when it’s an innocuous tackle in training and you’re unsure what it is until you get your scan, it’s just frustrating.

“You’re thinking you’re probably going to be back after two or three weeks and then it turns into two months - that was the most frustrating part.”

Kosylo scored five goals in six games during a purple patch earlier this season, the kind of form which sparked rumours of a move to the Football League.

“I thought I was doing OK before I got injured,” he said. “I just want to get back among the goals, get back performing well, get my confidence back and see where that takes me.

“All it takes is one game where you do something good and it clicks again. It gives you that spark of confidence.

“If you do things well, get a bit of praise you get that self-belief, but I do already have that.

“Players in the Premier League talk about confidence - it makes you do things you probably think you can’t do.

“It’s all about getting back on the pitch, getting minutes under my belt and seeing where it takes me.”

Halifax have only lost twice in their last seven games following a run of 12 matches without a win before then.

“We’ve turned it round recently,” said Kosylo. “We’ve been stubborn, hard to beat and to be fair in what has been a difficult patch because we’ve had loads of injuries.

“It’s been tough but they’ve done well. We’re probably doing what’s expected, maybe a little bit beyond.

“I reckon a lot of people thought we’d be in a relegation battle, but we’re in a good position and we can kick on if we get a few players back and hit a good patch of form.”

Kosylo has been one of numerous injuries that have hit the Town squad this season, but the winger doesn’t think Town’s poor form earlier this season can be solely attributed to missing key players.

“I think it’s swings and roundabouts,” he added. “We still hit a bad run of form when we had everyone fit.

“But we’ve still had a lot of players out and hit a good run of form.

“We can mix it with the teams up near the top, and it’s a wide open league.

“It just depends who gets a run of form.

“I’ve not been in this league before so I don’t know what the target is to stay away from relegation, but the sooner we reach that the better.

“Then we can kick on, because we’ve got a good group here.”