Mark Trueman will be hoping to progress in the FA Youth Cup when FC Halifax Town welcome Stocksbridge Park Steels to the MBi Shay Stadium.
The Shaymen defeated Staveley Miners Welfare 4-0 in the previous round thanks to goals from James Sunderland, Marko Basic and Reece Kendall, the latter scoring a brace from the left-back position.
Mark hopes for another positive outcome on Tuesday night…
“We are looking to carry on from where we left off. We played some good football, the team kept their shape really well, and we ended up grinding them down and getting the result. We’ll be expecting the same kind of performance from the lads. I’m expecting Stocksbridge to be a lot like Staveley in terms of a 4-4-2, quite defensive, counter attacking mentality. That’s what I’m expecting. Same performance and same result if possible!”
One of the standout players from the Staveley game was Reece Kendall who scored two goals in the victory. Kendall also put in a good league performance against Preston during the week and Mark expects the youngster to continue his good form…
“Reece has had a good start to the season. He’s playing out of position, but what he offers us defensively and what he offers us going forward, in terms of set pieces, is how well he attacks the ball. He could definitely win us the game in terms of a set play because he attacks the ball so well. We’re hoping for him to have another good performance, in both areas of the pitch, defensively and offering that threat going forward from set plays.”
The victory against Preston didn’t come without drama, Halifax snatching the three points at the death, thanks to Jake Thompson’s late winner. Mark believes his squad can secure the three points much sooner next time round…
“I think in the Preston game we had chances to kill the game off in the first half. Hopefully we’ll take our chances early on in the game and be little bit more controlled, that’s what we’re hoping for. But if it takes us until the 90th minute again to grind out a result, I’d take that as well. We’ve been working on the training pitch and working to do a lot more in the final third and take our chances, and hopefully we can put it into practice on Tuesday night.”
The gaffer emphasises that the finishing from the team is an area of improvement despite the recent victories…
“I think it’s still a new teams, new players playing together. The more games they play with each other, the more they’re going to understand each other’s movement. With the work we do on the training pitch, hopefully we’ll be better in the final third. The Youth Cup game last time out, we scored four goals but again, I thought we could have been better in the final third and finish our chances a little bit better. So that’s one area we’ll be hoping to improve on come Tuesday.”
The MBi Shay Stadium hosts FC Halifax Town v Stocksbridge Park Steels on Tuesday at 7:30pm.
Come on and support your ‘town’!!
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