FC Halifax Town: Wild urges confidence not arrogance after Shaymen’s superb start

FC Halifax Town boss Pete Wild is urging “confidence not arrogance” ahead of his table-toppers’ home clash with Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday.
HALIFAX, ENGLAND 6TH AUGUST  Halifax Town manager Pete Wild  during the Vanarama National League match between FC Halifax Town and Hartlepool United at The Shay, Halifax on Tuesday 6th August 2019. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)HALIFAX, ENGLAND 6TH AUGUST  Halifax Town manager Pete Wild  during the Vanarama National League match between FC Halifax Town and Hartlepool United at The Shay, Halifax on Tuesday 6th August 2019. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)
HALIFAX, ENGLAND 6TH AUGUST Halifax Town manager Pete Wild during the Vanarama National League match between FC Halifax Town and Hartlepool United at The Shay, Halifax on Tuesday 6th August 2019. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)

Wild has enjoyed a perfect start to life as Halifax manager, beating Ebbsfleet 4-1 last Saturday before a 2-0 victory over Hartlepool United at The Shay on Tuesday night.

“Confidence not arrogance,” Wild said when asked what the message is to his players. “It’s just a good start, just keep going, keep working as hard as you can. It’s a long season.”

Wild admits Town’s start has surpassed his expectations.

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“Well yeah, it has,” he said. “But I’m confident in mine and my staff’s ability, I trust the players.

“And if we’ve got that working relationship there’s always a possibility you’ll do every week.

“There’ll be down times, but it’s important we all stick together, the staff, the players, the fans.

“We all stick together through the good times and the bad times, and if we do that, we’ll have a productive season.”

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Wild says there is still room for improvement from his side.

“One hundred per cent, there’s always room for improvement,” he said. “It’s confidence, not arrogance.

“We should be confident now but we need to get back on the training ground and make sure that we’re ready for Dagenham’s threat on Saturday.”

Halifax winger Danny Williams is thought to have tweaked his hamstring against Hartlepool, but Wild said it was too early to ascertain the full extent of the problem.

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“What’s really good is that we’ve got 21 players, and in those 21 players, any one of them can come in and do as good a job,” said the Town boss.

“It’s unfortunate for Danny but he’ll come back stronger. But now it could be a chance for somebody else to step-up and show what they’ve got.”

Wild confirmed midfielder Cameron King was taken off due to fatigue against Hartlepool.

“Again, I’m really pleased we’ve got people that can mix it up and play in different ways,” he said.

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Wild is happy with the depth of his squad after the latest addition of former Wolves, Exeter and Cheltenham striker Liam McAlinden.

“That’s it for now,” Wild said. “Let’s see how the next few weeks go, but Liam’s an exciting young forward that has done well at a Football League club on trial pre-season, unfortunately he couldn’t get a move over the line.

“He’s more than capable of playing for us. If we can get him where he used to be he’s an exciting prospect.

“I’ve known of Liam’s talents for a while. I lost touch with him a little bit when somebody rang me up and last week I was like ‘oh definitely, 100 per cent, we’ll have a look at him’.”

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Wild is happy with the squad he has assembled since being appointed two weeks ago.

“I’d like to think we’re attracting a decent sort of footballer to the club,” he said, “and I’d like to think people trust me and my staff in the way we develop young players.

“If you get a reputation for that then you get the players you may not get otherwise.

“There’s some quality footballers at this club, we’re really pleased where we’re at, and we’ll just keep driving forward.

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“I’d rather us go under the radar - it doesn’t help us being top of the league!

“Everybody keeps saying ‘oh they’ll drop off at some point, it’s just a good start’. If people keep saying that, then fantastic, but we’ve got to back it up every Saturday now.”

Jerome Binnom-Williams is the only out-and-out left-back at the club, but Wild says he is happy with the cover he has.

“We’ve got loads of options in that area,” he said. “I’m not fussed about that. If needs be I can go into the loan market.”

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On long-term injury victims Dayle Southwell and Josh Macdonald, Wild said: “Fingers crossed Dayle will be back in about a month’s time. He seems to be having a bit of bad luck the poor lad at the moment.

“In terms of Josh Mac, he just needs games now, and we’re going to get games for him to make sure he gets back to the level he was at before he was injured.”

When asked if he would consider loan moves for the duo to get them back up to match fitness, Wild said: “Maybe, but we’ll see. That’s to be discussed when they’re firing on all cylinders.”

The Town boss will carefully consider his team for the visit of Dagenham on Saturday, with the same 11 having started Halifax’s first two games of the season, but The Shaymen still facing six games before the end of the month.

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“I like to reward lads,” he said. “I think as a footballer sometimes you can take people out of squad when they’re doing well and they’re like ‘what the hell, why have you taken me out of the team?’

“But I’ve got to be clever and calculated with all the games that are coming up, so I’ll need to have a think about that over the next 24, 48 hours.”

Dagenham bounced back from their 2-0 opening day defeat at home to newly-promoted Woking by winning 2-1 at Dover on Tuesday night.

“There’s no mugs in this league, but we’ve got to worry about ourselves, get our heads down and do the hard graft,” Wild added.

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“And if we do that then everybody’s got to worry about us haven’t they?

“I’m not going to sit at home worrying about Dagenham and Redbridge, I’m going to make sure that my lads are ready to go.

“We’ll make sure we do our homework appropriately on Dagenham, but not overcook it.”