Adam Lakeland says FC Halifax Town are up for the challenge as they prepare to start their 2025-26 season.
The Shaymen kick-off the campaign away to Braintree Town on Saturday after an encouraging pre-season under new boss Lakeland.
And he is looking forward to the season getting underway.
“It’s going to be a very difficult game. In the opening game of any season, it’s always difficult and challenging to prepare for because you haven’t got too much footage to go off,” he said.
“So you’re led by how they looked in pre-season, some of the players they’ve carried over from last season, some of the players they’ve signed, and you’re trying to prepare for the game the best you possibly can.
“But the opening game of the season’s notoriously fast and furious, and it’s usually sweltering hot, and everybody’s desperate to try and get off to a good start.
“It’s going to be a very difficult game, I think they’re certainly favourites with the home form they had last season, and being the side at home.
“But we go there having had a decent pre-season and having prepped well this week, and we’re up for the challenge.”
Lakeland added: “Every club will want to get off to a good start.
“You’d love to get three points on the board in your opening game.
“It’s never easy if you get off to a slow start, because you’d be looking up at quite a lot of clubs, so naturlaly, everybody wants to try and get something out of that first game.
“I think Braintree, as the home team, will be vying for all three points, as will we as the away team.
“If you can’t win, don’t lose. We’re hoping we’ll be returning to Yorkshire with some points on board.”
Pre-season has seen a huge turnover of players in the Town squad, with several expected to make their competitive debuts on Saturday.
Lakeland still wants to add to his squad but is happy with how the summer rebuild has gone.
“From where we were five weeks ago, I think we’ve got to be delighted with what we’ve got to be honest,” he said.
“I have been quite open in saying that we are still looking to add (to the squad), and I do feel we do still need to strengthen a bit.
“But we won’t just snap into signing anybody just because I feel we need to get another couple of bodies through the door.
“It’s important that we recognise the right ones and we get lads coming to Halifax who are hungry to come here and do well for us, whether that be on a permanent or a loan.
“I’m pleased with where we are, I’m pleased with the work we’ve done with the players that we’ve got in the building.
“But I think we’d only strengthen what we had if we were able to add a couple more bodies, but whether that will happen or not before the weekend is unclear.”
When asked what he wants to see from his new-look side at Braintree, Lakeland said: “We need to see a resilience and a real grittiness to the way we go about our out-of-possession work.
“They’ve got some good players, they’ve got the ability to play through the pitch but they’ve also got the ability to go back-to-front, and that little bit more direct.
“We know that physically, it’s going to be demanding, and that’s something we have to accept and be up for, but that’s not just at Braintree, that’ll be every single week in the National League.
“We’re going to be coming up against some big, physical sides who are going to be able to handle the ball, but they’re also going to be able to go a bit more direct and it’s up to us as a group of individuals and a team, to meet that challenge head on, whilst trying to be the best version of ourselves we can be.”
The Shaymen only lost once in pre-season and scored 14 goals in their eight warm-up games, playing some encouraging football.
While Lakeland is keen for his attacking players to show what they can do on the pitch, he insists that has to come under the umbrella of an overall plan.
“When players start going off script and making it up as they go along, it generally leads to confusion and errors,” he said.
“And if you make too many errors at this level of football, against good opposition, you get punished.
“So there’s got to be a structure and there’s got to be clear patterns and principles to our play, and we work really hard on that day-to-day in training.
“But I think you’ve always got to encourage the individuals to flourish within a team structure.
“It’s important you don’t just have individuals going off script and making it up as they go along, and doing whatever they want on the pitch, but when we can get our more creative players on the ball in the right areas, they’ve absolutely got that freedom to go and express themselves and try and make an impression on the game.
“What’s important to us is that we play with a control and we play with a maturity, and that we’re not open and we’re not constantly turning the ball over and putting the ball at risk in areas of the pitch where you simply can’t give it away.
“But that we have that ability to control the ball and dictate how games are played, and that will then allow us to get our more creative players, shall we say, on the ball in areas of the pitch where they’re going to ask questions of the opposition rather than picking it up in random areas of the pitch and maybe not in positions where they can create and score.”
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