FC HALIFAX TOWN

RHYS MURPHY may not look back on his time at Oldham too fondly, but it was enough to convince Halifax boss Pete Wild of his talents.

The striker has netted 14 league goals this season for Darren Sarll’s Yeovil, making him the National League’s joint-top scorer.

He only scored three goals in 24 appearances for Oldham between February 2015 and the summer of 2016, a spell which included a more successful loan spell at Crawley, which produced nine goals in 15 league games.

But Wild, a former youth coach at Boundary Park, knows enough about the frontman to be wary of his threat at Huish Park on Saturday.

“I know Murph well, he’s a good player,” said the Halifax manager. “A fox in the box, he gets half-a-yard here and there, he’s sharp, he’s lively, and he’ll be one of many threats they’ll pose.

“He’s had a tough time of it and never really settled, been in and out of teams.

“He’s gone to Yeovil this year and fair play to him, he’s hit the ground running.

“He did that earlier in his career at Crawley, so he’s a proven goalscorer.”

The former Arsenal youngster has netted five goals in his last three games, including a hattrick in a 3-3 draw at Wrexham. Without his goals, Yeovil would have nine fewer points this season. Murphy may have scored over a third of Yeovil’s league goals this season, but Wild says he is far from The Glovers’ only danger.

He added: “We do what we do. One thing we’ve tried to do in recent weeks is concentrate on ourselves, and I think that’s working.

“They’ve got more than Rhys Murphy to contend with, they’ve got six forwards who could all do a job.

“We’ve got to focus on ourselves but have an eye to stopping their threat.”

Only three teams have scored more goals in the National League than Yeovil, who are also the division’s fourth highest scorers at home.

They have only failed to find the net once in 13 games at Huish Park this season.