FC Halifax Town are preparing for their first game in 16 days when they face relegation battlers Tamworth on Saturday.
In preparation for the match, Aspin has brought a new face into the team, in the form of experienced defender, Chris Smith.
Smith is eager to play and he comes to Town armed with a vast array of experience, which is one reason Aspin brought him in: “I just thought that we don’t have a lot of cover at centre-half and also we have conceded too many goals this season so bringing in a centre-half who has got the experience Chris has got at this level was the right type of player to bring in at this stage.” Aspin Said.
Smith is rather versatile and has played in the holding role at centre midfield but Aspin has made it clear that he made the signing to offer cover at centre-half: “I think sometimes when you’re manager, you can’t watch every player you bring in, sometimes you have to go on recommendation of others, but I certainly signed this player as a centre-half.
“It’s important that the two centre-halves we have at the club will both benefit from having a player at centre-half who will talk and be more vocal so I think that’s one of his key assets.
“It goes without saying that in this league, a centre-half has to head the ball and he has always been good at attacking the ball in both boxes and another thing is, when you’re trying to bring in players to a club, you want people who, attitude wise and as a person, you know are good professionally.
“I’m really pleased so far and with the 12 games we’ve got left it’s important that we’ve just brought in another defender because we don’t have a great deal of cover in that area.”
Aspin said that the long time in between matches won’t affect the lads come Saturday: “Braintree have had a really long break and they came back on Saturday and got a good draw at Kidderminster. It’s all about the attitude of the players.
“I would like to think that after the last performance at Tamworth, the players are eager to show what they can do in the home game.
“Every game is important but certainly, we want to keep our home record going and we want to get straight back into it. We know it’ll be difficult on Saturday against Tamworth, we know that they are fighting at the bottom of the table and we need to be picking up points in the home games.”
The 32-year-old signed from York yesterday and could face a former club in Tamworth on Saturday hopefully he can help the team and Aspin, who are focused on redeeming the performance in the reverse fixture: “All the games are important, especially the home games because we want to keep our home record. It’s a game we are capable of winning but we know that we’ve won games when all the players have done well and done their jobs, we didn’t play well at Tamworth and we got beat.”
Town’s game after Tamworth on Saturday comes against a Hyde team that remain winless at home. Many fans believe that this is the perfect game for the team to get another away win, but Aspin doesn’t like to underestimate teams, in fact, he was at Ewan Fields this past Saturday: “We show a lot of respect for all the teams we play and I was at watching Hyde on Saturday, we can’t underestimate them and they played well at our place and were unfortunate to lose by the score they did.
“A lot of that game, the match was in balance and they are still fighting. I watched them play against Aldershot on Saturday and they gave a good account of themselves getting a 2-2 draw. I certainly don’t underestimate Hyde.”
However, Aspin doesn’t like to look past the task in hand and he knows how important it is to play well this weekend: “I know that Tamworth is the first job we have to deal with and I want the players to really give a good account of themselves on Saturday.”
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