"It's a huge achievement," says Nichol as FC Halifax Town's youngsters prepare for National League Academy Cup final against Eastleigh

Halifax face Eastleigh in the game tomorrow (Wednesday) night, kick off 7pm, at the Sixways Stadium, Worcester.

"It’s a huge achievement to reach the final for players, staff and the club," said Steve Nichol, Town's head of youth, junior and community football development, "this is a aational competition including the best academy programmes ran at National League level.

"Many of the clubs compete very well against professional clubs, which highlights the standard of the competition.

"I’m pleased for Gav, Nick, Calum, Jack and Abbey who spend a lot of time preparing the players.

"The team have done really well to reach the final and defeated some of the best northern teams to progress including; South Shields, Chester and Chesterfield and can go into the fixture with confidence.

"We understand Eastleigh are an older team, mainly under 19s, there physicality as well as ability will be big factor to overcome."

Nichol says winning isn't the be all and end all for Town's youth team, but establishing a winning mentality is vital.

"We aim to create a development programme, whilst learning how to win is important it is not always defined by winning trophies, as nice as that is," Nichol said.

"What is key is the lessons to get here; the discipline of hard work and training and investing countless hours of practice to improve.

"Our aim is to improve players and hopefully must them on to the next level within the club or football reaching the final is a great achievement and offers a small barometer that we are heading in the right direction.

Town fans can attend the game for free tomorrow night.

"In previous seasons, in my time at the club, we have previously reached the semi-final of the National League Academy League Cup in 2019/20 season, however the season was curtailed due to the initial Covid lockdown," Nichol added.

"That was the first year the competition had ran alongside the formation of the new National League Academy League.

"We have reached the semi-final of the National League Alliance Cup on two previous occasions and reached the final in 2017/18 losing out to Chester in the final.

"The National League Alliance League and Cup was the highest level of competition prior to the introduction of the National League Academy League and Cup."