‘The fans can dream, but we can’t’ says boss Wild
PETE WILD is happy for the Town fans to get carried away about promotion, but not his players.
The Shaymen are in the thick of the battle for promotion, sitting third in the National League with 13 matches remaining.
And Wild wants his squad to focus on what happens on the pitch, and ignore the bigger picture of where it could lead.
“I remember this time last year at Oldham,” he said, “everybody was getting carried away with the play-offs and I was playing it down, saying ‘let’s just pick up results’.
“As soon as somebody gets carried away in that dressing room, we’re screwed. We’ve all got to remain grounded.
“The fans can dream. They pay their money to dream, but we can’t dream. We can’t get carried away, we’ve got to just take care of business. There’s two months to go that can define players’ careers and define the club, and hopefully get the club back where it wants to be.”
Only top-two Barrow and Harrogate have won more games than Halifax in the division this season, and Wild said the fact that Town are even in contention for promotion shouldn’t be underestimated.
“Who’d have thought we’d be there, first and foremost?” said Wild.
“It’s a credit to the lads that they’re actually in and amongst it, and everybody should remember that.
“They should be getting every pat on the back that they deserve for still being amongst it come this time in the season.
“It’s not going to be easy, there’s going to be random results, there always is in runins. But we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance. We’ll take it month-by-month, like we have been doing, and game-by-game, and hopefully, come the end of it, we’re still amongst it.
“We’ve just got to take care of ourselves, and if we take care of business we’ll have a chance.”
Wild wants his side to show their promotion credentials over the next two weeks when they visit Torquay and Eastleigh on consecutive Saturdays.
“We don’t fear any team,” he said. “We’re cautious of teams and we pay them the respect they deserve, because if we do our homework right and we get it right on the training ground, we’ve always got a chance.
“I think The Shay plays a massive factor in that, and every time we play at The Shay I feel like we’ve got a chance.
“But good teams pick up points on the road and that’s what we’ll need to do.
“We’ve got some tough away fixtures, especially the next two in Torquay and Eastleigh. Long trips, the mindset’s got to be right, the mentality’s got to be right, and that’ll be what I’ll be screaming at them.”