FC Halifax Town Manager Billy Heath heaped the praise on both Matty Kosylo and Sam Johnson following Town’s victorious evening in the FA Trophy against Vanarama National League leaders Macclesfield Town.
The Shaymen progressed into the second round where they will face Maidenhead United at the MBi Shay Stadium and it was a superb return to the starting eleven for Kosylo who netted the only goal in the 1-0 win and Billy believes he showed moments of his magic once again.
‘Yeah you’ve seen flashes of it today because obviously he’s been out six weeks, I think it’s over six weeks now and you just see flashes of him’
‘His goal was a great finish, great, great cross from MacDonald and then his finish was great but he just has that ability to go past people and to make things happen in the last third’
‘I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, at the end of the day he’s put another good shift in tonight and we’ve just got to keep building him up.’
The winger fully deserved his goal and was dangerous all evening as Halifax attacked the wide areas brilliantly, with Josh MacDonald also proving equally as troublesome for the Macclesfield back line.
Following his cameo off the bench on Saturday against Maidenhead, Kosylo will now be looking to get back into regular first team action and Heath knows it’s going to take time before his fitness levels peak once more.
‘He’s not up to speed we know that, tonight he’s nowhere near fitness wise levels to where he was before’
‘It’s pleasing to get the win, Kossy’s got some minutes under his belt, some steady minutes under his belt’
Goalkeeper Johnson was also lauded for his two massive saves to keep Macclesfield at bay and deservedly came away with a clean sheet and acclaim from his manager.
‘Yeah he did very well first half he’s had the long range effort where he’s held it as well and it was really safe and like I say two really big moments, he’s made two really, really good saves’
‘I’m pleased for Sammy because like I say he had a real good game on Saturday and he’s followed it up again tonight.’
Johnson twice got down low in one-on-one situations to smother the ball and keep Halifax’s lead and will no doubt he delighted with his own personal performance.
Heath knows Macclesfield well thanks to this Christmas period and was well aware of the challenge the league leaders posed however he knew that his side had to make amends for the previous two defeats to the Silkmen and felt his team put in a good performance.
‘Yeah definitely, tough game again against a top, top team. Weathered the storm at times, which was good, we didn’t concede when we were put under pressure at times. Yeah I thought we played some good stuff.
Obviously we’d lost two games over the Christmas period and we wanted to put that right in some way. Like I say we did well tonight, we played some good stuff as well.’
Heath has often reiterated how injuries have plagued the first team this season and with only having 16 fit players he would’ve been devastated to find out that Cliff Moyo would have to come off after 15 minutes in this fixture however it appears the injury was not as bad as first feared.
‘One or two are carrying stuff, obviously it’s disappointing. Clifford has got a slight thigh strain, hopefully that’s going to clear up pretty quickly.’
Following Halifax’s poor run of form, it was important to get the win regardless of what competition it was in and the gaffer knows confidence is a huge part of the game.
‘I think it was just important tonight to get a win in the column and to keep the confidence going. We had a good result on Saturday, it’s just important just to get a win on the board.’
‘We’ve just got to get back to winning football matches again’
To watch the whole interview with manager Billy Heath, and for more post match reaction from this FA Trophy victory from Matty Kosylo and Josh MacDonald, head over to Shaymen TV.
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