FC Halifax Town drew 0-0 away at Woking yesterday finishing the game with 10 men following the sending off of defender Nathan Clarke
We spoke to Matty Brown returning to the side following his recent injury
Q: On a personal level, how good did it feel to be out of there in a Town shirt again today?
A- “Brilliant. It’s been a long time coming. I counted this morning, it’s been eleven weeks to the day, you know, it’s not far off three being, so it’s been painstaking, but it’s part and parcel of the game and you’ve just got to do the right thing. I got a bit unlucky with the reoccurrence, credit to the physios at club, they’ve got me right and probably a bit ahead of schedule, they’ve basically enabled me to get through the game today. We had a little bit of an in-house game on Tuesday, just to get a little bit of sharpness, which I felt horrendous in, but it’s obviously done me a little bit of good because I felt okay today, I’ll see if I’m alright in the morning! But personally it’s great to be back involved with the lads, I was getting a bit fed up watching from the side and having to do that side of things. Obviously part and parcel of your job, being captain of the club, but there becomes a point where you want to have an effect on the pitch rather than being a voice from outside, because you find yourself repeating yourself basically. But today, the lads can take great credit from it, because we showed what we were about, coming away from home. First half we weren’t really up to standard, we weren’t really where we wanted to be, but second half, I think, especially with going down to the ten men, it shows that team spirit that I keep banging on about in our dressing room. You’ve got Danny Williams, who put an absolute shift in, the two centre-mids, you know, Staunts dropping back to centre-half. Even though they had a lot of the ball I never felt that they were gonna score, even though they had a lot of pressure, it was just one of them games where I thought “they’re not scoring today,” which is great, because there’s been criticism from that way, that we can’t defend our box, but today we’ve proved we can. I’m just delighted to be back with the lads, and buzzing for the lads today.”
Q- How would you sum up today’s game?
A- “It was a tough one, wasn’t it? First half we were so focused on setting out how we wanted to play around Woking. First half, I felt they shaded it, we weren’t able to implement the game we wanted to play, but that happens in football and you’ve got to adjust. You’re not always going have you’re own way, they’re going to have their spells, we don’t panic, we’ve just gotta make we’re solid. We went in at 0-0 when we could’ve conceded first half, we went in, regrouped, came out and showed a different side. We were unfortunate to lose Clarkey, you know, it’s a poor decision isn’t it? But the spirit that we’ve shown to stay in the game, I think you’ve seen today lads who really want to do well for this club, putting in shifts when they didn’t really have to do that work and helping out, when someone’s made a mistake, you’ve seen people today filling in and doing that dirty work that you don’t really get credit for, but whilst you’re on the pitch you see people who’ll dig in for you, and today everyone did.”
Q- You’ve mentioned about the team spirit the boys have- when something doesn’t go our way, like today with Clarkey getting sent off, is that something that can really help out in these sort of situations?
A- Yeah, you find out who your characters are, don’t you? An easy one’s to throw the white towel in and get beat 2-0 away from home and blame it on having ten men, but today, you’ve seen what we’re made of. I keep repeating myself, but since I’ve been at this club, the cornerstone of it has been the team spirit. We haven’t got the biggest budget but what we have in that dressing room is special and whoever comes to the club is part of that. We don’t take any wrong ‘uns really, the lads that come in, they’ve got to buy in to what we’re doing, we’re all hard working, and today, for me, they’re the pleasing ones, they’re scrappy, you’re defending your own box and you seen today who want to go to war with, and today I thought all of us dug in and deservedly got the point.”
Q-We’ve managed to take 10 points from our last 5 away games- can you put your finger on why we’ve been so strong on the road?
A- Not really, no! I think sometimes you can say there’s no pressure on away from home, everyone expects you to get beat, but I wouldn’t say that. Football, to me, after being at this level for a long time, is 90% mental anyway. I think if you turn up with the right mentality and attitude that gets you over the line. People at this level are all similar abilities. I think if you turn up and want the game more than the opposition than you predominantly come away with the win, or at least a point. In the past we’ve come away and have had a really poor record in London, but this season we’re a different animal, we’re coming on the road and picking up points, we just need to sort our home form out slightly.”
Watch the full interview on Shaymen TV
Read more posts by Lewis Tomlinson