Midfielder Kevin Roberts knows FC Halifax Town will face a stern test away at league leaders Salford City FC on Tuesday night.
The Shaymen showed a terrific test of character in Saturday’s 2-1 win at AFC Telford, producing a wonderful comeback display after conceding inside the opening 15 minutes.
“It was a terrific performance from the team to get to winning ways. The 2nd half hopefully showed the fans that this group of players are prepared to fight for each other and dig out a result” said Roberts.
“The manager was calm at half-time. He told us to relax, show more confidence on the ball as we were wasting it and not taking our time in building up chances and to trust in each other” Roberts added.
The advice from the manager Billy Heath clearly effected Roberts’s second half – whose terrific solo run provided the assist for Nathan Hotte to slot home at the near post in what proved to be the winning strike.
“I’m not too sure where that run came from to be honest!” Roberts joked. “I’m not normally one to dribble with the ball but picked it up in a good area after linking up with Josh (Macdonald) and just kept going- before I knew it I was on the by-line and managed to cut it back across.”
FC Halifax Town’s focus now turns to Salford City on Tuesday, a non-league side who have had a meteoric rise up the football pyramid as well as plenty of off-the-field interest – given the club’s famous owners and recent television series ‘Class of 92: Out of Their League” on the BBC.
“Everyone is well aware of the media hype surrounding them with the TV Show and the ex-Man United players in ownership” said Roberts, “To be honest most of us take no notice of that and treat them as another league side. You could argue there is pressure on Salford to perform, but there is also a great deal of pressure on us as we are one of the biggest teams in this league” the midfielder added.
Roberts believes that the Shaymen will need to perform with the same intensity and desire that they successfully achieved in the 2nd half at AFC Telford in order to match the high pressing levels of Salford.
“They’ve coped with the added media attention well to their credit and they’re flying. We want to be back up there fighting for promotion and if we play like most of us saw for most of the second half I’m confident we can get the result we want” said Roberts.
“The past few games Salford have started really sharp and work really hard as a unit with strong levels of pressing. We know we need to match that tempo, we’re confident and will look to get at them early and get control of the game so we can focus on playing our way”.
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