FC Halifax down will be buzzing with confidence after they came back to beat high flying Kidderminster Harriers. With Brackley Town on the horizon, assistant manager Mark Carroll believes the side needs to focus on their own game to get the win.
There may have been a focus on the fact that Brackley ran out 3-1 winners when the side met at the MBi Shay Stadium back in October. But Carroll doesn’t want his side to pay attention to that knowing his side can win by playing their own game.
“We showed them a lot of respect and at the end of the day two games of football are generally never the same. Obviously, we still need to show them the respect we all know what they can do. In the end, we’re big believers in what we do because we’ve shown on our day we are more than a match for anybody. For us it is whether we turn up and do what we do well. If we do that then we have a very good chance of winning the game.”
The Shaymen have been in strong form and a win against The Saints would mean that they close the gap on league leaders AFC Fylde to eight points, a surprising state of affairs considering many were writing off top spot as something The Coasters had already claimed as their own.
With first position not yet an impossibility, Carroll want’s Halifax to keep pressure up and claimed it’s Fylde’s place to lose.
“It’s not over until it’s over. They’re in a strong position but they’ve still got to win football matches and it’s down to us to put pressure on them. We’re still 11 behind them with a game in hand and we still must play them. Pressure does strange things in sport so you just don’t know. There are more than 20 teams that would love to be in Fylde’s position right now so it’s theirs to lose but we’ve just got to make sure we win our games and if they slip up we’ll capitalise on it.”
“It’s been a hectic schedule for Billy Heath’s men. The game on Tuesday night will mark the fourth game in just two weeks. Yet it is an incredibly important one with it being a game in hand and a chance to make up ground on the teams above.
“There are no breaks but you would expect that now in the season. Again, it’s another tough game but another winnable game. The lads will be going in good spirit we’ve just told them they need to look after themselves. Obviously, it’s the game in hand, all results are big but if we can pick up another three points after this result it’ll be a fantastic run of two games away against two tough teams.”
A few of Halifax’s key players missed the win over Kidderminster with hamstring injuries seemingly sweeping the squad.
Josh Macdonald has been out of action for all of 2017 whereas injuries to Matty Brown and Matty Kosylo are recent blows. However, the three of them are making their slow returns to the squad in time for the last games of the season.
“Josh Macdonald did a little bit of work with myself before the game and he’s not far off. Kosylo will do something on Tuesday but he’s got more of a chance to come in on Saturday at home. Matty brown is still a little bit off but I would say he will be upping his work in the next ten days, apart from that it’s a clean bill of health.”
You can watch FC Halifax Town’s next game away against Brackley Town on Tuesday the 4th of April.
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