Nathan Hotte admits FC Halifax Town “just didn’t get going” against Harrogate Town and believes fresh ideas in attack are needed in their next fixture away at AFC Telford on Saturday.
The central midfielder made an appearance from the bench in the 1-0 defeat to cap off a disappointing Bank Holiday weekend of football for the Shaymen, with two consecutive defeats; 3-2 against AFC Fylde on Saturday followed by the first defeat of the season at the MBI Shay Stadium on Bank Holiday Monday.
“We’re bitterly disappointed to come away from these games with defeats” said Hotte. “Against Harrogate we just weren’t at the races and our quality across the pitch was poor. The excuse of ‘2 games in quick succession’ to be honest shouldn’t be used – Harrogate had just as much time to prepare as ourselves. The tempo from our point of view was slow throughout” he said.
The Yorkshire derby won’t live long in the memories of either supporters, with both teams struggling to find another gear and as such created very few chances. Credit must be mentioned to Harrogate’s goal-scorer Jack Emmett, who broke the deadlock just pass the hour mark with a thunderous strike off the crossbar from a tight angle.
The referee came under a lot of scrutiny from the home crowd and Hotte shared in the fans frustration.
“The ref didn’t have the best of the games if I’m putting it nicely” Hotte jokingly admitted. “I was booked for ‘persistent tackling’ when I’d only been on the field for 10 minutes and made just the one challenge- so that sums his performance up” he added.
The focus now turns to Saturday against Telford, the first of two consecutive away fixtures for the Shaymen in the National League North as Halifax will look to end this run of defeats quickly.
Hotte believes a different tactical approach is needed against Telford.
“We needed to mix things up more against Harrogate and will be looking to do that in the next game at Telford” Hotte confirmed.
“We kept looking for Dents (Tom Denton) as the main outlet for us and credit to the Harrogate defence they got around him and dealt with the long balls forward to him. We need to look at alternate ways to create chances. Tom is an incredible option to have for us and brings a terrific threat to any opposition but we know he isn’t our only strength” said Hotte.
“As a team I think we need to show a little more urgency at times and request the ball to feet. Start attacks from the back, look to get the wall out wide and create opportunities from there as everyone knows we have great pace in those wide areas. If we can show that on Saturday and begin to create a variety of attacking threats we should get the 3 points and our form should bounce back quickly.” Hotte concluded.
AFC Telford vs Halifax Town is on Saturday 3rd September – Kick-off 3pm.
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