FC Halifax Town: Strong start has exceeded expectations, says chairman

Halifax are only four points off top spot in the National League having lost just two of their first 10 games.

When asked if Town’s start had exceeded his expectations, Bosomworth said: “I think you’ve got to say that because when you’re putting a new side together, and we can all talk about budgets, but there are teams with far bigger budgets than ourselves, but we’ve shown that we’re competing with them.

“I think that’s a huge positive and all credit to the manager, his backroom staff, and not least, the players.

“And we’ve had to cope with our fair share of injuries early doors, and not just short-term injuries.

“That potentially disrupts your structure, but I don’t think it has and those that have come in have done a good job.”

Bosomworth feels the transition to a full-time model has gone well, despite some challenges.

“I think it’s gone fine,” he said. “Obviously it provides slightly different challenges, not least the financial ones.

“But it’s gone really well. The biggest problem for us has been the weather where the grass hasn’t grown where we train, so we’ve had to use a lot of 3G, and the grass isn’t as we would want it.

“But they don’t have a full irrigation system, so that’s a big factor, but neither have we had any rain, which has made things a bit hit and miss.”

Despite Town’s impressive start to the campaign, Bosomworth would like to see more supporters coming through the turnstiles.

“It’s been hard to get the numbers up,” he added. “Possibly we were slightly disappointed about the gate on Saturday, not least because Orient brought around 350, but they’d indicated 500-600, hence the reason we opened the far stand, otherwise we could have got their fans in the East Stand and saved significant costs with stewarding.

“Another 200-300 would have made it 2,200 overall, and we brought in a crowd doctor as well as a team doctor, which you have to do for gates of over 2,000, which is another extra cost.

“We do need to keep the gates up though because that’s a revenue generator.”

Read more from the Town chairman in Friday’s Courier.