The core values behind Town’s impressive start to the season
A WINNING mentality, a professional attitude and being tactically aware - these are the three core values behind FC Halifax Town’s strong start to the season.
They are the objectives that were drawn up by senior players at the club in pre-season, against which everything, from training to games, should be measured. And so far, the results speak for themselves.
Town have won seven of their first 11 games and sit third in the National League.
Other factors like recruitment and tactics have also played a huge part in Town’s exciting start, but their core values are the driving force.
“The wider group came up with a number of things and they were refined down to those three core things,” says assistant manager Chris Millington.
“We pulled together things that were similar and the senior players narrowed it down to those three core things.
“It’s been great because it gives us as a staff something to measure ourselves against but we can also measure the players against it, and they can measure themselves against it when they walk off the pitch.
“We measure everything we do against those three core objectives and values. Everything we do in training, we’re looking to maintain high standards, we’re looking to be tactically aware in terms of as a team, but as individuals, what are our roles and responsibilities within the team, within the different moments of the game. And everything we do starts with measuring it against those. Then we go below that, and into more detail around what that actually looks like within our play.
“But it’s an easy tool for everybody within the group to be able to measure what we’re doing in terms of training, in terms of our analysis, in terms of our games - are we approaching those things and successfully living up to the three core values and objectives we want to measure ourselves against.”
Millington is delighted that The Shaymen are getting their rewards this season in terms of results that he feels their performances have merited.
“I’m really pleased, and the thing that pleases me most is I think the lads are getting what they deserve out of games more often that not,” he said.
“I think if we’re performing well, we’ll generally get what we deserve and I think the performances have deserved the results.
“So I’m pleased from that perspective.
“I think we’re maybe a little bit ahead of where I’d have predicted in terms of our style of play, but I’m not necessarily surprised. What we were really keen to do was build on what work we’d done with last year’s players. The lads who were retained and decided to stay, we felt we’d done a good body of work coaching them and we could start to develop that, refine it a bit, and it would help the new players coming in because there was already an understanding within the group of what we want to do.”
Millington says a lot of the foundations upon which Town’s strong start has been built have been in place for a while.
When asked why he thought Halifax had started so well, he said: “I think the stability, having a core of players who have been with us since last season, some of them were with us the season before, and they understand the way we work, our methods and the information we’re getting across.
“Although we’ve tweaked and evolved over the previous two seasons, they understand what it is we’re trying to do and how we’re going about it. So where there’s a bit of stability and a bit of time to plan slightly longerterm, we’re starting to see the benefits of having that.”
Millington feels a clear identity has been formed around the team now and their style of play.
“I’d really hope that people can describe what a Halifax Town team looks like now on a Saturday afternoon,” he said.
“I think people will be able to see that we look to break lines, we look to break forward, we look to play a possession-based game. Out of possession we’ve
I think we’re maybe a little bit ahead of where I’d have predicted
got a good intensity on the turnover, on the transition we press aggressively, and when we need to we can get into a good compact shape and be difficult to break down. They’re the traits we’re trying to bring out and even when the opposition are analysing us, they can see that’s what we are and we’re effective in what we’re trying to do.”
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