Adam Senior’s performance at Eastleigh on Saturday typified the leading role he now has for FC Halifax Town.
And if what remains of the season features more displays like that from the stand-in skipper, Senior’s name will be next in the lineage of commanding and committed Shaymen centre-halves that also includes Marc Roberts, Matty Brown, Niall Maher, Jesse Debrah and Jamie Stott
The defender was Halifax’s stand-out player in the 1-1 draw, and is now Town’s defensive lynchpin having moved centrally in the absence of Will Smith, Jo Cummings and Festus Arthur.
“Obviously we’ve had injuries to a lot of important players in the team who would otherwise be playing,” said the 23-year-old..
“But we can’t dwell on that. With where we are in the league and everything, we’ve just got to get on with it and grind it out.
“It’s just that time of year where you’ve got to grind out the results.
“We’ve got five finals left now and it’s going to be a battle every game because we’ve got teams in the relegation zone who are trying to stay up and a play-off rival in Altrincham.
“It’s five big games now and we’ve got to get through it.
“The lads who’ve come in just need to realise the situation we’re in – it’s five finals.”
One of the consequences of Town’s injury crisis has been Senior taking over as captain in the absence of Sam Johnson.
“I’ve been here two-and-a-half years now and played a lot of games for the club so I know the club well,” he said.
“At the end of the day, it’s an armband, it doesn’t mean anything really.
“You’ve all got to be leaders if you’re playing and take responsibility.
“I wear the armband and it doesn’t mean too much at the end of the day, although I’m very grateful for the gaffer to recognise that and give me the armband.
“It’s good recognition and I do appreciate it.”
Senior says that while it’s tempting to wallow in wondering how things might be different but for injuries, he takes a more pragmatic approach.
“Before our injury crisis, we’d had a really good season and a month ago, we were in a really good position in terms of the play-offs,” he said.
“But it’s happened now, so we can’t say what if, because it’s happened.
“We’ve just got to get on with it.
“After Wealdstone away, we can’t have any regrets saying ‘what if we’d got a result here’ or ‘what if we’d played better there’.
“It’s just that time of year where you can’t be selfish, it’s a team game and with this run-in, we’ve got to play as a team.
“Everyone has to realise this is us as a group, there’s no-one else coming in now.
Senior added: “We’d rather be in a different situation obviously, but it’s happened, so the new lads, if they play, if they get the chance, they have to see this is men’s football, people’s livelihoods are on the line, we all want to go up.
“They have to realise that.
“Where we were a month ago, six weeks ago, we were flying.
“We were getting good results and dominating teams.
“But you’ve just got to get on with it, it’s as simple as that.
“Just see the next five games out, get the results and see what happens in the play-offs.”
If Town are to make the top seven, they’ll need to show some improvements after Senior admitted they “scraped” a point at the Silverlake Stadium.
“We weren’t at it, one to 11, but we’ve come away with a point so we’ll take it,” he said.
“At this time of year, you take the point with the play-offs in mind, but obviously we’ve got to do a lot better if we want to get into the play-offs.
“If you’d said in pre-season – when you think back to the results, they weren’t great – that with five games to go we’d be in the play-offs by four points, we’d have taken that all day long.
“Now it’s five cup finals. Everyone in and around the club has to realise that, as do the lads that have come in.”
And Senior says the Halifax fans have a part to play in the club’s play-off push too.
“We need them more than ever, we’ve got such a young team,” he said.
“I’ve been in situations where fans can turn on you when it’s not going well and it’s not nice.
“You don’t want that, especially for the lads who’ve come in on loan who’ve not experienced this level of football before.
“So we need them more than ever.”
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