FC Halifax Town: "Hopefully we can keep this two-points-a-game mantra going" - Wild on Weymouth, staying on track and strength-in-depth

Town manager Pete Wild wants his side to stay on track for their two-points-a-game target by winning at Weymouth on Saturday.

Wild has repeatedly preached the importance of his side picking up enough points so they're meeting a two-points-a-game ratio, which he hopes will be enough to ensure secure promotion, and has been in the last three seasons the National League has been completed.

The Shaymen have 54 points from 28 games, so wins in their next two matches, against strugglers Weymouth and Dover, would leave with 60 points from 30 games.

When asked if it was a must-win game to keep on track with his target, Wild said: "Of course it is, yeah, but some would say they're all now becoming 'can we get a result' games.

"We'll be going there to try and win the game, not for the point, as we do with every game, and hopefully we can keep this two-points-a-game mantra going."

But despite Weymouth's perilous league position - nine points from safety with 14 matches to go - Wild is expecting a difficult afternoon.

"Since the new manager's (David Oldfield) taken over they've looked a lot more athletic, a lot more resilient," Wild said.

"He's got five positive results out of nine, against some really good teams as well.

"So they've had an upturn infortune and you can see their compactness. They've still got their footballers, they're a good footballing side, but he's brought a real resilience to them out of possession, and I've seen that watching them this week."

When asked what kind of game he is expecting on Saturday, Wild said: "I think it'll be a really tough game down there.

"They really look like they've galvanised and they're in it for the fight, and you can see that from the results they're picking up against some decent sides.

"I think it'll be a good football game because they haven't turned away from playing football.

"I think it'll be tight, it'll be nip-and-tuck, and it could go either way."

Assessing his own team at the moment, Wild said: "We've got a lot of strength-in-depth, we found a way to win on Saturday against a team that tried to frustrate us.

"Apart from the chance where Mason-Clark's through, they never looked a threat, we defended when we had to, we've had lots of possession and we ground another result out, which was great.

"The boys were off of Monday, it's been a long month for them, but they were back in on Tuesday and everyone was lively.

"One thing I like to see is that everybody's doing extras, the players who didn't get on on Saturday were doing their running and making sure they keep up to the levels they need to be.

"Everybody's in a good place and what I like to see is everybody looks very business-like.

"They know what they need to do, everybody's desperate to get in the team so it's a good place for a manager to be.

"Also a tough place for a manager to be because you're having to disappoint people but it's a good place for us to be in terms of everybody desperate to be in the squad and in the team."

Wild says his message to the Town players ahead of Saturday's game will be around imposing themselves on the contest.

"We've got to be us, control the football in and out of possession, we've got to be strong, we've got to be compact when we need to be, and we've got to not let them get into their rhythm, and if they do that, we've got to be strong with the football and try and break them down whenever we get the opportunity," he said.

Wild confirmed that Kieran Green was his only absent player due to injury this week.

"Some of them will miss out through no fault of their own, it will just be what I need on the bench, and the people who are in the team, it's up to them to keep the shirt, and keep other people out," Wild said on the competition for places in his squad.

"We'll see how they train this week and see how they do, but it's about what's right for the team and what's right for the squad.

"That's what I get paid to do and I'll make those decisions based on how I've watched them all week."

On Green's recovery from injury, Wild said: "He's running, he did a bit of dribbling with the ball this week so hopefully he can keep that progressing this week and we'll see where we're up to."