Let’s stay focused, says Wild as Halifax begin hectic schedule

Town manager Pete Wild is shunning any talk of the playoffs as The Shaymen prepare for a pivotal run of eight games in 24 days.

Halifax’s gruelling schedule begins with a trip to Altrincham on Saturday, before they welcome Wrexham to The Shay on Tuesday.

Town go into the glut of games in seventh place, level on points with Wrexham in eighth but with a game in hand.

However, Wild wants his players to take it one game at a time without any burden of considering where they are in the race for the play-offs.

“I don’t think there’s any pressure on us,” he said, “we haven’t thrown silly money at it.

“We want to be there but there’s a lot more teams with a lot more to lose than us, and I think that’s why it’s an opportunity for us to just play our football.

“Our objective first and foremost was to get to 50 points, and when we get to that we’ll have a look at something different.

“But if you start looking at it like ‘oh if we just do this or just do that’ then you take your eye off the ball, so I’m not interested in talking about the play-offs at the moment.

“There’s 12 games to go yet, a lot of football to be played, so let’s just keep trying to put points on the board.”

Wild says it is pointless thinking about play-off scenarios and how results could affect the table.

“I think that just builds anxiety and unnecessary tension,” he said. “The fact of the matter is we can only affect what happens against Altrincham on Saturday.

“Everything else, everybody else’s results, league tables, who we’ve got to play the Tuesday after, is completely irrelevant. That’s how people have got to look at it because otherwise you take your eye off the ball.” Continued on page 61