Following the hard-fought goalless draw against Wrexham on Tuesday night, FC Halifax Town manager Billy Heath has sung the praises of his squad’s character to earn a draw against a side he believes will be near the top of the table when the season ends.
Injuries forced the boss to name a slightly makeshift side, with midfielder Nathan Hotte having to slot in at centre half and Josh Wilde filling in at right back and the circumstances made Heath even more proud of his side even if it was a nervy start to the game.
“Yeah it was a little bit tense at the beginning but sometimes when you’ve had a defeat like we had on Saturday, we’re licking our wounds a little bit at the minute because players are playing with knocks and are playing out of position.”
But we’ve said all along what these players have got, they’ve got character and I thought they all stuck together really, well tonight. When individual players needed a hand out, there was somebody there backing them up.”
“I just thought it was a good performance.”
Both teams had chances to take the lead in this game, none more than Adam Morgan who will feel aggrieved that he wasn’t awarded a stoppage time penalty but overall a draw was a fair result according to Heath.
“I just thought it was an even game. I thought we’ve had probably the best chances especially at the end of the game where we’ve had a good chance and obviously the penalty, or it wasn’t as the ref saw.”
“Tough battle both teams played some decent stuff and once again our lads were magnificent, disappointing result at the weekend, knew it was important to get something on the board and start the little run off again and the shape of the what we are at the minute”
Heath was full of praise for Hotte who put in a fantastic shift in a position that is not his most natural and the manager believes one of the main strengths of his side is the dedication and determination that they show when they wear the Shaymen kit.
“Nathan Hotte just a man for all seasons and when he does play midfield his work does sometimes go unnoticed because he does the horrible things if you like, he breaks things up to allow Connor to play but he’s gone into centre half and in both the games, even Saturday he did great.”
“You’ve got people playing out of position wanting to do it for the team. Wanting to give everything they’ve got and you can’t ask for any more than that.”
It was a tense affair between two good sides, this game, and Heath believed it was going to take one significant moment to break the deadlock as both sides struggled to create any significant chances, however the boss is delighted with the clean sheet.
“That’s what we said at half time, it might be a mistake it might be a bit of magic.”
“I’m pleased that we got the clean sheet again, it’s important. We don’t like conceding goals, being an ex-centre half, I hate it when we concede goals. It was important that we kept a clean sheet, it would’ve been nice like I say to get the win but one of the most important things is that we didn’t lose and we got another point on our road.”
This result moved Halifax up a space in the table to 9th whereas Wrexham remained in 6th and Heath was very complimentary about our opposition and their chances in this league this campaign.
“Wrexham are a good side, they’ll be definitely, definitely, no doubt in my mind come the end of the season they’ll be in the mix and we’ve had a good performance.”
For more post-match reaction from Heath and Adam Morgan and Nathan Hotte, visit Shaymen TV to watch the full interviews.
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