Steven Drench says FC Halifax Town must improve in their upcoming games if they want to make a play-off push in the Vanarama National League North.
The Shaymen could only secure a solitary point at home to AFC Telford United on Saturday, drawing 1-1 in a match that was largely lacking in quality. There was however one moment of sublime quality, from visiting substitute Joe Fitzpatrick, who unleashed an unstoppable first-time strike into the top right corner of Drench’s net. Josh Wilde came to the rescue with a goal deep into injury time, in front of the south stand, to at least give the Shaymen something to show for a difficult afternoon’s work.
Drench expressed his belief that the Shaymen had missed attacking midfielder Jordan Sinnott, who was injured in midweek against Eastleigh, saying: “A lot of the good things the team do go through him; everybody knows he’s one of our most influential players so he is going to be a big miss.”
“But obviously now it’s a squad game and Hibbsy’s come in today and done well, got on the ball and made us play and put himself about.”
Despite the late equaliser from full-back Wilde, Drench was disappointed with the result and the overall play of the team, saying: “It was a very disappointing really, we’ve taken a point out of the game, but it’s not what we needed or wanted. It wasn’t a very good game, there wasn’t much quality on show but obviously, their goal is a ‘worldie’ strike.”
Drench himself had minimal goalkeeping duties to perform as the Shaymen’s last line of defence and compared that to how the Shaymen played earlier in the season: “It’s pretty much reverting back to type, how we started the season. We were dominating games – more than we have done today – but again I’ve had nothing to do all day apart from the odd routine save or a cross or through ball, and then that ends up in the top corner. You look around and think ‘what’s going on?’ but at the end of the day that’s football and you can’t dictate that sort of thing; it does happen. That doesn’t take away from the performance really; we were too direct, devoid of ideas at times and not good enough.”
The Shaymen struggled to really take the game to Telford for most of the ninety minutes, but Drench said that wasn’t good enough: “I think regardless what team you’re playing, be it Fylde or Telford, if you’re at home the emphasis is on you to go and dominate and get three points. We know teams are going to make it difficult for us but at the same time we’ve got to have a bit more of a game plan.”
Looking ahead to the festive period, the shot-stopper was adamant that the Shaymen must play better. He said: “I think it’s entirely down to the lads, I’ll be honest. The managers got a way he wants us to play, encourages us to get the ball down when we can and pass it, and at the same time we’ve got the outlet of Dents up there, but we can’t just solely rely on that. It’s purely and simply down to the lads and it’s having the confidence and belief in themselves to get on the ball and make things happen. We’ve got some good footballers in the team, and hopefully we can improve and show that when we play against Darlington.”
Watch the full interview on Shaymen Player HD right now.
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