After Billy Heathโs men salvaged a dramatic draw against Salford, morale will be high in the dressing room and the unlucky side that are set to take on FC Halifax Town in this state is Stalybridge Celtic.
The side who are currently sat in 19thย position should surely not be underestimated, but it is fair to say that the Shaymen should consider themselves comfortably the favourites.
As you would expect, Heath is trying to keep his and his playerโs feet firmly planted on the ground ahead of this tie and believes Stalybridgeโs new change in management will pose a real threat to his side.
โStalybridge had a good win on Tuesday night. Obviously theyโve got a new management team in. People are eager to impress and people are eager to get points given the position Stalybridge are in so like Iโve said before you work hard and you try to the best of your ability to get points.โ
The new manager at the helm of Celtic is Steve Halford, a former Ashton United and Mossley manager who impress after three consecutive play-off spots with Ashton.
The new manager and his partner Paul Phillips will have only had eight days in charge of Stalybridge coming into the game at the Shay but will already have a win under their belts thanks to a 3-2 win over Gainsborough Trinity.
Unfortunately for Halifax the team news ahead of this game will be a familiar story with more players expected to be out injured and the manager has expressed his frustration with the situation.
โThe problem that we have at the minute us that weโre never getting a settled side and weโre always chopping and changing. Against Salford Jake Hibbs came in for Nathan Hotte who is out injured again. To be fair to Hibbs I thought he was tremendous, the boy has got real ability quality but he just needs to learn the game a little so weโre working with him.โ
The injury problems pile up again for Heath as he explained that Matty Koslyo picked up another niggling knee injury in the game on Tuesday night, the same injury that ruled him out of the Telford match.
You can see Halifaxโs next game at the Shay on Saturday the 10thย of September, 3pm kick off against Stalybridge Celtic.
Read more posts by Kelly Gilchrist