"We didn't want him to go" - Town boss confirms midfielder Hmami set to leave

Hmami looks set to join fellow National League club Harrogate Town after they had a bid accepted for the player.

"We've had a bid from Harrogate," McGrath told the Courier. "Josh came to me a couple of weeks back and expressed his desire to leave the football club.

"We didn't want him to go, and that was followed up by an official handing in of a transfer request.

"I spoke with the chairman, and we want players who want to play for Halifax Town.

"Josh, for whatever reason, wants to move on and sees his football career elsewhere.

"We've had discussions about it over the last couple of weeks.

"Josh had been fantastic during my short spell with him, his training's been spot on, he's done everything I've asked, he's trained really well, he's played really well, dso we didn't want to lose him.

"There's been a bid from a club that meets the valuation we have of the player."

On whether any of the fee Town receive for Hmami will be reinvested into his playing budget, McGrath said: "David's always brilliant like that, we've been in constant contact regarding players and who I want to bring in and if I earmark someone that would make the squad better, then we'll sit down and make a plan to bring said player in."

On this afternoon's 1-0 win at Curzon Ashton, McGrath said: "A really good exercise, a good away game to finish our pre-season off.

"They pressed really high, they were really energetic.

"It was a completely different game to what we had on Tuesday, but that's what it's going to be like, there'll be teams we come up against who will be like Rochdale and teams who'll be like Curzon.

"So a great exercise for us, we made some changes today to the starting 11 to maske sure everytone hits the end of pre-season with roughly the same minutes."

McGrath added: "There's loads of things I'm not happy with and there's loads of things I am happy with.

"I didn't think our ball retention was good enough, it could have been better in either half, especially second-half, we turned the ball over too much for a ream who likes to dominate the ball.

"We turned it over too often, which can be because of a lot ot things, we made six, seven, eight subs, which doesn't help the flow of the game.

"Everything I asked form, from the first day to the last of pre-season, the lads have given and they gave everything again today, the energy levels were fantastic.

"Whether they start or come on, they're a really good group that I've loved coaching for the last six weeks."

On match-winner Conor Carty, McGrath said: "He'll judge himself off his goals scored, and he wants to score goals. And I want him to want to score more goals.

"He's so desperate to score goals that sometimes he makes a run too eagerly and he might be offside, but he's going to be fine once the league campaign gets going.

"We've got Morgs as well and David Kawa, and we're looking to strengthen as well."

Defender Thierry Latty-Fairweather is still struggling with his hamstring injury.

McGrath sais centre-back Mackenzie Maltby is "on the mend" from a knee issue, while Zak Gilsenan's absence was precautionary due to feeling a little fatigued.