Three days after their first pre-season fixture of the 2018/19 season. Jamie Fullarton and his FC Halifax Town players travelled to local club Brighouse Town FC where they triumphed 7-1.
However, once again, like Saturday the manager, Fullarton, was more interested in how his side performed rather than what the result ended up as.
He was looking to make the steps to having a fully fit, raring to go side, on the 4th of August when The Shaymen play their first league game of the season away at Braintree.
“Again, I stressed it on Saturday when we discussed the game vs Stockport, it is a building process towards the 4th of August. It was important that players increased the amounts of minutes they had tonight, and again it’s a building block on to Saturday, which we then move to what we’re doing in training in tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, preparing for Saturday”.
He did though speak about the result and amount of goals scored by his side. He was pleased and believes this result can give his players the belief to create more chances and keep scoring goals.
“Mentioning the result, while it is great, and you always want to win everything that you do, as I referenced on Saturday with some board game, but it’s important that we put the preparation in for that 4th of August and I felt the attitude tonight and approach was exactly what we expect in an expectation from everyone at the club that that’s what we do when we play”.
“Scoring the goals does build the belief in what we are working on every day and it is always great for players to score goals, especially the attacking players. If you look at the number of goals, how we scored them and the chances we created. I think that’s the key, creating those chances and those goal scoring opportunities that’s more important, we only start worrying when we are not creating chances, so that was a pleasing aspect tonight”.
Fullarton kept mentioning that kick-off date on the 4th of August and it’s clear to see that’s what the side is focusing on now.
“I think we’ve got a long way to go, it’s building towards the 4th of August. So, ask me after then how pleased and happy I am with how we’ve gelled after Braintree.”
“We are building towards everyone having the right number of minutes, at the right times, to be fully fit and competing for a place come the 4th of August”.
Moving away from the game, Fullarton mentioned how happy he was that he gets to spend more time with the players. He feels it can allow him to nail into the players how he wants them to play this season and to continue to work hard in preparation for Braintree.
“Preseason at any level, at any club is hard work. It’s the grounding preparation for a long gruelling season with 46 league games. So, we are obviously working very hard, the advantage of the shift from part time to full time means I have a lot more contact time with the players, you can be more strategic in your planning and what you do. Having them double sessions every day definitely helps, although it makes it very tiresome for me”.
Jamie Fullarton and his side will next face Bolton Wanderers on Saturday at the MBi Shay Stadium. The Scottish manager quickly touched on what he would use that fixture for.
“Saturday is part of the preseason preparation before the start of the league and it’s important we build on tonight and we look at extending the number of minutes certain players play, in certain areas and balancing it so everyone is pushing and fully fit for that start of the season”.
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