FC Halifax Town head down to Essex to face newly promoted side Braintree Town FC on Saturday for their first game of the 2018/19 season.
As a new side in the Vanarama National League, the side managed by Brad Quinton will be looking to continue their scoring form from last year to ensure their safety at the highest stage of non-league football.
Part of the reason why The Iron managed to gain promotion through the playoffs was the number of goals they scored.
The side who play at Cressing Road was the second top goal scorers in the National League South last year notching an impressive 73 goals to reach 6th in the league.
The team that play their home games in orange also had an impressive pre-season, winning most of their games.
FC Halifax Town will have to be on top form to get the result they want on Saturday and especially if they want to stop this week’s player spotlight.
The player spotlight is Braintree Town FC’s new winger Lyle Della-Verde. The young player is a quick wide man that looks to attack at any given opportunity.
He was described as a gifted player who can play on both wings and is also talented with both feet, making him a danger to the FC Halifax Town defenders on the opening day of the season.
The 22-year-old was born in Leeds, played youth football for Spurs and Southend before eventually signing for Fulham in 2011 where he turned professional on his 17th birthday.
Della-Verde was signed from Dartford. The side from Kent were just pipped to automatic promotion by league leaders and then lost to Della-Verde’s current club, Braintree, in the semi-final of the playoffs.
The winger featured 34 times for Dartford last season scoring 5 goals, showing he was a key part in their push for promotion. He’ll be a key man this season for his new team as Braintree look to stay in the National League.
He did score a goal for his new side as he featured in a friendly against Newmarket as The Shaymen’s first opponents for the new season won 4-0. Della-Verde got on the scoresheet early on in his Braintree career and has featured in nearly every pre-season friendly since.
Having also already played for Crawley and Fleetwood in his career, the young man does have high-level footballing experience and will use that to progress this season for The Iron.
Having scored so many goals last year and adding an exciting winger to their ranks in Della-Verde, Braintree could be a threat to many sides this season.
FC Halifax Town will be looking to get off to the best possible start on Saturday, as stressed many times by manager, Jamie Fullarton. So, a tough test against Lyle Della-Verde and his newly promoted teammates at Braintree Town FC would be a good place to get The Shaymen’s first three points this season.
Read more posts by FC Halifax Town
;
