Columnist

THE LADS who are playing at the moment deserve the shirt, they’re playing fantastically well and are working as a team, which is brilliant to see.

We don’t just have the one or two individuals, everybody’s putting in a fantastic shift.

Niall Maher is the vicecaptain and has taken the armband in my absence.

He’s a fantastic character, he’s a winner but still relatively young.

I think people might miss how young he is.

He’s played a lot of league games but he’s still only 25 and he’s wanting to improve and keep building on his career.

The manager and the assistant spoke to me at the start of the season about it and it’s credit to him that we thought he was probably the right man to be vicecaptain.

You’ve got to be wellliked, you’ve got to have the respect of the group.

Niall’s always had that, he’s always put himself forward for things, he helps me with the fines.

He’s a good leader for his age.

I played against him and knew what sort of player he was, good on the ball, a lot quicker than probably people give him credit for.

He’s improved, he can play numerous positions and I think the manager likes how comfortable he is on the ball, driving forward.

He’s certainly a good lad to have on your team.

He’s had a really good upbringing at clubs like Bolton Wanderers and Bury when he was younger.

He’s young enough and fit enough to really push himself.

Hopefully we get the best out of him at FC Halifax Town.