FC Halifax Town under 19s manager Mark Trueman has said that he wants his side to finish the year on a high ahead of Wednesdayโs League Cup tie away to AFC Fylde (1pm kick off).
Townโs youngsters progressed to round three of the competition following successive penalty shootout victories over Hyde United and Stockport County last month.
Trueman has called for his side to end 2017 in style as they look to overcome a Fylde side who have won four of their six National League Alliance matches this season.
โOf course, we want to finish the year on a high,โ said Trueman, โwe want to keep winning games and, in terms of development, weโre going to keep playing better teams the further we go in this cup.โ
โWeโre confident going into the game. Weโve been better at the back, defensively, and weโve been better as a team really and thatโs what Iโve been most pleased with recently.โ
โWeโve been pressing the ball better, higher up the pitch and weโve been defending better as a back four as well so for us now itโs about carrying that on and we hope that the break wonโt affect our performance. I think we go into the game full of confidence and looking to get a result.โ
A fortnight ago, eight of Truemanโs youth side started in the 4-2 defeat to Selby Town in the West Riding County Cup and, despite the disappointing the result, he felt he could take positives from the match.
โIt was a good game for them in terms of it being a good learning curve,โ continued Trueman, โbecause we were playing against adults with a different style of play.โ
โI was pleased that we tried to keep playing football, tried to keep playing out from the back. We just got punished really, from our own mistakes, from either sloppy passes or not defending well enough one vs one.
โBut, thereโs positives to take from the game. Obviously, Billy (Heath) was there, and he was positive about the players and the performance.
I think it was one of those types of games where youโve got to deal with the long ball, second balls in midfield, dangers from set plays and weโve got to learn how to deal with that.
โItโs a big learning curve for some of them, especially the second years who looking to go into menโs football or pushing towards our first-team.โ
We will have coverage of FC Halifax Town U19s’ trip to AFC Fylde on Twitter @FCHTOnline) and Snapchat (fchtonline)
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