FC Halifax Town: Wild confident Town will bounce back after first defeat of the season

The Shaymen were beaten 1-0 by 10-man Wrexham on Tuesday night, a result which ended their 100 per cent record and knocked them off top spot in the National League.

Halifax had produced a battling performance and were the dominant side in the contest after Jake Lawlor’s red card when Mark Harris scored the decisive goal 12 minutes from time.

But Wild has no doubts that his team will respond in the right way this weekend.

“The lads will react well, they’re top lads, good lads, and they’ll react well because they’re a good dressing room,” he said.

“We’ve just got to pick ourselves up and make sure we react in the right way on Saturday.

“We can’t be too down because we’ve got to go again Saturday.

“The message is ‘yeah, alright, we learn from that, but we’ve got to go again Saturday, and let’s turn a negative into a positive’.”

Wild was pleased with what he saw at the back from his side, but wants them be sharper going forward.

“We just need to go again and do what we’re good at, and get back to that,” he said.

“Defensively we look sound, it’s just going forward we need to take more care and stop forcing the ball forward when our game is about build-up play and getting the ball wide.

“When we did that in the second-half we looked threatening, but when the ball went into the box, the delivery wasn’t good enough.”

When asked why that was, Wild said: “I don’t know. You work all week into deliveries into the box and it comes to matchday and it doesn’t happen.

“Maybe it’s how they (Wrexham) defended, maybe it’s the angles they defended at, or it’s just down to sheer quality.

“There were a few of them that looked really tired out there and it gives me a few things to think about come Saturday.”

Midfielder Niall Maher tweaked his hamstring the day before the Wrexham game but it is hoped he will be fit for Saturday’s trip to Aldershot.

Winger Danny Williams is expected to be back for the home game with Fylde next week from his hamstring injury.

Wild feels there may be an upside to the fact that Town’s 100 per cent record has ended.

“It takes the pressure off us a bit now, and takes the pressure off a young squad of everybody looking at us,” he said.

“So that’s quite pleasing because that now allows us to get on with our work and people to stop talking about us.

“I just want to get on with our work and get our heads down and see where that takes us. I don’t want everybody shouting and balling about us.”