FA Trophy Fifth Round
Pete Wild says FC Halifax Town face a huge battle on their hands as they attempt to move one step closer to Wembley.
Halifax welcome giants Notts County to The Shay tomorrow – but Wild is also somewhat relieved to be playing a fellow National League outfit.
The Shaymen have had rough rides against all four lower opposition – Pontefract Collieries, Kidderminster Harriers, Bradford (Park Avenue) and Alfreton Town – in the FA Cup and Trophy this season.
“(Notts County) are very similar (to us) in the way they play and how they try to exploit certain areas,” Wild told Non League Yorkshire.
“It should be a really good footie match.
“I think these are one of the best footie teams in the league if you let them.
“You look at how they did against Barnet (by beating them 6-1) on Tuesday night, Barnet let them be Notts County and if you let them be Notts County then they are a real threat.
“Some would say when we have played lower league opposition we made it harder.
“We’re playing someone in our league who are probably one of the favourites for the competition so it may suit us!
“Who knows!
“They are all hard games when you get to the latter stages of the competition.
“If you want to win cup competitions you have to beat the best teams and I regard Notts County in high regard.”
Wild intends to stick with his side’s style of play despite concerns over The Shay pitch which took a battering following the Rugby League fixture between Halifax Panthers and London Broncos on Sunday – 24 hours after Halifax’s late postponement with Bromley.
“Let’s see how it plays in the next couple of games,” he said.
“I’m not going to jump to conclusions.
“The pitch has been fantastic and has really helped out style of play so you can appreciate why I made those comments over the weekend about not looking after the pitch.”
Despite not playing since the 3-1 win at Dagenham & Redbridge on the 29th January, Wild’s men remain third.
Five points separate them and leaders Stockport County and Halifax have a game-in-hand.
Wild says few would have expected the title race to be so close.
“It is ridiculously tight,” he said.
“We haven’t played for 14 days and you could say results have gone our way.
“Everything has levelled out and everyone has played the same amount of games and we all seem to be still locked together.
“It is great really and it makes for a tight couple of months.
“(The title race) has not turned out the way everybody thought it would.
“There’ll still be a lot of bumps in the road to come but I still think the likes of Wrexham, Southend coming from nowhere now and big guns like Chesterfield and Stockport, they’ll be up there.
“Notts County who we are playing on Saturday will be up there.
“If we can be the plucky little one who are fighting with the big guns then fantastic.
“I don’t think you can split the teams.
“The thing they (the big guns) have got on the league is if they need to improve by recruiting they all can do.
“The finances they can put towards recruitment will give them all a fighting chance.
“If they need to get stronger they’ll get stronger.”
Just before the end of January, Wild completed the signings of Aaron Martin (loan from Harrogate Town), Jamie Thomas (loan from Preston North End) and recently-released Oldham Athletic striker Zac Dearnley – captures he was thrilled with.
“The chairman has been unbelievable with me and supported me in what we’re trying to do,” he said.
“It shows with the quality we have brought in, they are not just squad fillers.
“They are three serious players who are going to make us better.
“Because we have created such a good group of lads we need to be careful who we bring in and we have been careful in that respect.
“I take forever (when signing players) but I had been teeing them up for two months.
“You spend all that time and effort and most of them don’t come off.
“But it is about bringing in the right people and character is key.”
The new signings were greeted with fanfare but the end of the EFL transfer window deserved its own celebrations as Halifax kept hold of all their star men.
But it was tough, says Wild.
“Brutal, absolutely brutal from start to finish,” he said.
“It is a credit to the players because they have developed the interest (from EFL clubs because of the way they have been playing) but the chairman has been phenomenal in the fact he said nobody was going anywhere and that we were strengthening not weakening.
“He has been true to his word.
“I’ve done most of the scrapping to keep the boys here and reassured them they are at the best place at this stage in their careers.
“Agents will try and orchestrate things that are not there and there’ll be bids put in.
“There’ll be players’ heads being turned so you have to deal with all those moving parts and make sure everybody comes out of it knowing they are contracted here, respected here and know what we are trying to do here.
“I was confident we would hold our nerve but it was still stressful because you’re taking call after call and thinking ‘if they come back with a silly bid what do we do here’?
“Luckily we held our nerve and the chairman stayed strong and all the players who had interest in them are all on board fully for the rest of the season physically and mentally.”
No more new faces are lined up but Wild has not ruled further additions before the end of the season.
“Not at the moment,” he said.
“There’s a few out on loan and we’re at 25 bodies now and two players for every position.
“We’re very strong in that respect.
“It will be about assessing middle to the end of March and seeing if we need to do anything before the window shuts in the second week of April.”