Centre-back Byrne thriving under the guidance of Wild and Millington
NEILL BYRNE has quickly become part of the furniture in this season’s FC Halifax Town side.
One of the last signings of the close season, Byrne has started every game this season for The Shaymen, nearly all of them on the right of the back three.
Town’s 3-4-1-2 system encourages all the back three, but especially Byrne and left-sided centre-half Tom Bradbury, to move out of defence with the ball and start attacks, something Byrne embraces.
“From the moment I got permission to speak to them, the trust they instilled in me was nice,” he said. “I probably needed some time to get fit because I wasn’t doing much training with Fylde, I had a niggle, but the gaffer and Milly (Chris Millington) said ‘we know what you can do, we know we need to get you fit and it’s up to you to work with us and we’ll work with you, but we’ll get you there’.
“They tried to give me that confidence in that they knew what position I could play, and it was just the confidence they gave me about being able to come out with the ball.
“It’s what you want from a manager - ‘express yourself’ ‘we’re telling you to come out with the ball, and if you lose it, that’s on us’.
“As a player, you know that if something the manager is asking you to do doesn’t come off, and he’s saying ‘that’s what I want you to do, that’s on me’, that gives everyone a lot of confidence.
“That’s something I’ve noticed from them. If I’m trying to come out with the ball or thread a ball, and it doesn’t come off, it’s not effing and blinding on the sidelines saying ‘what are you doing’, it’s ‘we understand it will come. we know you can do it, and you’re not going to get it right every time’.
“That trust and support they give you does give you confidence as a player and makes you want to go out and perform well for them.”
Byrne has been given licence to play out from the back at previous clubs, and sees the benefits playing three at the back can bring.
“At Macclesfield, we had that a little bit, the manager wanted you to play. And Fylde was a very footballing environment, Dave
Challinor wanted us to play a lot of football,” he said.
“You’re not protected as much with your two midfielders right in-front of you and your full-backs beside you, it’s a bit more open, but when you can get that right, get your wingbacks pushed on and your wide centre-halves coming out with the ball, you can cause a lot of problems.
“There’s different aspects of it, you have to get it wide more and probably have more one v one defending, but we can all probably play in different positions.”