"They've put themselves in the shop window" - Town boss McGrath hints at changes for Tuesday's game against Hartlepool

McGrath named the same starting 11 for the fourth league game in a row for Friday's 2-1 defeat at Altrincham.

But wide men Ben Tollitt and Connor Douglas were taken off at half-time, and replacements Owen Bray and David Kawa helped The Shaymen to an improved second-half display.

When asked by the Courier whether the performance at Altrincham would influence his team selection for Tuesday's game, McGrath said: "Massively, of course it does.

"The loss to Forest Green, there were some individual errors in there, but in the main the lads gave it a good go for 90 minutes.

"And we had been progressively getting better as the games have gone by.

"There's players who played second-half (at Altrincham) who certainly put themselves in the shop window to start against Hartlepool.

"I want to win games of football and I've got, I keep harping on about this, 22, 23 man squad and there's no point having them if I don't use them.

"It was exactly the reaction I wanted second-half."

But the Town boss says he wants to see a reaction from his team to the first-half performance at Altrincham, which he described as "not good enough" after the game.

"You can't play like that against any team in the division, never mind Hartlepool," he said.

"It just looked really passive first-half, we didn't get behind them enough, we didn't play forward enough, we didn't get to the byline enough.

"I felt sorry for Conor Carty and Zak Gilsenan, who ends up coming deeper for the ball and ends up at left-back because he wants the ball, but if you're Altrincham, you're happy if Zak's at left-back because he's not hurting you.

"Second-half we got higher up the pitch, created chances, got to the byline a lot, won a lot of corners and were probably really unlucky on the balance of play that we didn't get a draw."

McGrath added: "I really look forward to every game we play, I was really looking forward to Friday.

"Our preparation was good all week and we'll prepare properly for Hartlepool, we'll do things right.

"Everybody who plays against my Halifax Town team should be in for a full 90 minute game but we came up short (at Altrincham), 45 to 90 we were very good but zero to 45 we were very, very poor."