Town skipper: We must make amends

Actions from FC Halifax Town v Barrow, at the MBI Shay Stadium. Matty Brown

The Shaymen produced easily their worst performance of the season as they lost 3-0 at Maidenhead last Saturday, when the damage was done in an awful first-half that saw the hosts score all three of their goals.

Brown admits that performance was unacceptable and has called on his team-mates to make amends in the Shay clash.

“It wasn’t acceptable, from everyone on the pitch,” Brown said.

“From the minute we started we were doing uncharacteristic things. We stopped doing things that had got us in the position we were in.

“We’ve got to have a look at ourselves, but we’ve got to take the positives out of it - the fact we’ve been slack there means we’ve got to realise where we’re at and realise we can’t afford to turn it on and off as we please.

“We need to be at it every single week and we can’t take any team for granted.

“I think 3-0 flattered us, it could have been more. It’s just not acceptable.

“We’ve got to bounce back in our next game, but coming away from home you’ve got to be solid and we weren’t.

“It’s just not on, we can’t have it, and we’ve got to get it out of our system quickly and put things right.”

Brown couldn’t put his finger on why Town were so poor at Maidenhead.

“It’s hard, if I knew the answer to that I’d have tried to put it right on the pitch,” he said.

“You have those days in football but we have to make sure they’re a rarity and they don’t happen again.

“We’ve got to learn big lessons from it, and with the experience in our team, we can’t afford to have performances like that and be 3-0 down at half-time, it’s just not on at all.

“It’s a tough one to take but it did flatter us, it could have been a lot more. We’ve just got to learn big lessons and bounce back.”

When asked if Town’s home double-header with Hartlepool and Fylde, who are both above Halifax in the table, was a test of The Shaymen’s resolve, Brown replied: “As much as I say it wasn’t acceptable, we all know what we’ve done wrong.

“You have those days in football, and I’m not questioning the team’s resilience or team spirit, that’s not in question one bit.

“It’s all well and good saying it, we need to bounce back next week and do the business. We don’t want to talk too much about it, we just need to get the business done on the pitch.”