“It shows everybody’s right behind us” - Wild hails Town supporters’ fundraising efforts

Town supporters have donated more than £30,000 to the club’s fundraising initiative, which will be put towards the increased cost of competing in the play-offs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Shaymen are preparing for their play-off clash at Boreham Wood, which looks set to take place on July 21 or 22.

“It’s very humbling for all the players and staff, the amount of funds that have been raised so far,” said Wild. “We can’t thank the fans enough for what they’ve done.

“One of the aims this season was to bring the club back to the fans, the players and the staff as one, and I think it’s a clear indication that we’re doing that, and it’s shown by how much they’ve raised so far.

“I’m overwhelmed by the support, but I think it shows the positivity in the town, it shows everybody’s right behind us and we’ve got to deliver on that front now.

“All I can say to the fans is we’re where we want to be in terms of training, the lads are looking sharp, they’re in a good place physically and mentally, so hopefully those two go hand-in-hand and it makes for an interesting four or five weeks.”

Wild talked about the generosity of the fans when addressing his squad earlier this week.

“We spoke about it this week about how much the fans are backing us, about what we can draw from the Northampton game (League Two play-off final) in terms of them finishing seventh and going up, how physically robust they looked,” he said.

“I think we can draw heart from that in terms of our preparation for the next few weeks.”

Wild remains happy with what he is seeing from his players in training, with the Boreham Wood game now, in all likelihood, less than three weeks away.

”Training’s been great, the lads have been sharp, they look strong, they look fit,” said Wild.

“I’m really pleased with where we are at this stage.

“We’ve moved into contact-based training this week. The lads have bought into what we wanted from them.

“As we go through the week the technical element will come out a bit more, because it’s contact training and it’s more realistic.

“Hopefully by the end of this week we’ll be exactly where we need to be physically and technically.

“The next week will be a mixture of sessions, maybe playing someone else or in-house games to try and get that technical (level) back, and hopefully by the end of next week, we’ll have had chance to play some nine v nines or 11 v 11s so lads are where they need to be.”

Wild said training hasn’t yet been fully focused on Town’s opponents.

“They’re still trying to assemble their players back together, so I don’t think they’ve got a full squad to pick from yet,” Wild said.

“I’ve been looking at them, me and Chris (Millington) have a good idea of what we’re going to face, and in some of the sessions we’ve been dropping in some of the shapes they’ll play etc, nodding a wink to some of the players we might come up against.”

On the prospect of arranging any friendly games for his squad before the Boreham Wood game, Wild said: “We are trying but the National League, at the moment, are refusing friendlies until everyone’s got their protocols in place.

“When that’s all in place we might be in a position to get a friendly or two in.

“We would like to play a friendly but we’re at the beck and call of the National League in terms of being allowed to do that.”

Wild said he is working with a fully fit squad and that Michael Duckworth, who has recovered from a shoulder injury, has seen no adverse reaction to joining in full training.

“There’s a bit of soreness in a couple of them but nothing of any note.”

Wild said training will include practicing penalties, which is how their clash at Boreham Wood could be decided.

“It would remiss of us not to,” he said. “It’s part of our build-up in terms of set-pieces, and penalties do come into that.”

And on speculation linking Town with former Chesterfield and Stockport midfielder Connor Dimaio, Wild said: “He’s not somebody we’ve spoken to yet. He’s one of about 200 hundred names we’ve got on a list.

“We know of Connor, he’s a good player, but we’re not close to signing anybody.”

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