Following FC Halifax Town’s penalty win over Hartlepool United in the FA Trophy, Manager Pete Wild spoke to Shaymen TV to give his thoughts on the game.
“Really pleased to get the win,” Wild said. “I thought the game had two completely different settings. In the first 25 minutes we were incredible, really good, and move the ball really well. After we went 2-0 up, our levels dropped and I don’t think we were anywhere near the level we had been. I’ve said to the players that I praised them on Tuesday night, because of the way they played. But today, after the first 25 minutes, I did not think you were great. At the end I felt a draw was a fair result to take it to a penalty shoot-out. They caused us a lot of problems in the second half, which we didn’t deal with and that is something we will address.”
Town won the penalty shoot-out 4-2 thanks to Jack Senior, Luke Summerfield, Niall Maher, and Billy Chadwick scoring theirs. Despite not focussing on penalties in training, Wild was always confident his side would prevail.
“I was confident about them,” Wild told Shaymen TV. “I knew we had good penalty takers. Luke Summerfield takes them for us anyway. Then two or three of the boys from last season’s playoffs were confident. I also knew Billy was coming here and I knew that he has scored in every EFL penalty shoot-out he has been in. We had confident lads and thankfully it worked on the day.”
As a result of beating Hartlepool, The Shaymen progress to the fourth round of the FA Trophy. Wild is hoping for a strong cup run and feels confident the team can continue to go through the rounds.
“It’s a competition we want to do well in,” Wild said. “The Club has got a good history in this competition. We want to go as far as we can. I have got to find the balance between resting players in this busy period, but I want us to go as far as we possibly can.”
Town face Eastleigh this Tuesday, 7:00pm kick off. Wild feels the group have been preparing properly and are ready to go again.
“It’s another tough test,” Wild told Shaymen TV. “I know we got that break through Covid-19, but it will still be a difficult game. Eastleigh are a big, strong side who can also play really good football. They have an excellent group of players down there and I think it will be a really good game on Tuesday night.”
Watch the full interview on Shaymen TV.
Read more posts by Luke Davis
;
