FC Halifax Town: Coaching always been first love for new manager Adam Lakeland

For recently-appointed FC Halifax Town manager Adam Lakeland, it was a bit different.

From a young age, the Lancastrian, now 40, focused his energies on carving out a career in coaching, as opposed to stepping across the white line.

Lakeland, who achieved his UEFA A licence at the age of just 26, began his coaching career with Blackburn Rovers Women in November 2006, staying until the spring of 2011.

He worked as head of men's football at Preston-based Runshaw College from October 2010 to May 2017. Spells in non-league would follow at Curzon Ashton - he has had two spells at the Manchester club - Northwich Victoria, Farsley Celtic and King's Lynn.

The Clitheroe lad now finds himself in the National League with the Shaymen, his biggest job and opportunity to date, with all due respect to his previous clubs.

Lakeland - who secured a National League North play-off finish at King's Lynn in 2024-25 - told The Yorkshire Post: “I started coaching at 16 and kind of fell in love with it.

"I always felt I’d probably be able to coach and manage at a higher level than I’d ever be able to play. I just went 'all in' on the coaching side.

“I tasted management and enjoyed it and felt I was good at it. Here I am, quite a few years later and I have managed over 430 games with 230 of those in the National League North.

"I feel like I have done a good job at all the clubs I have been at in the past and tasted that success through winning a league and getting every club I have managed into the play-offs in whichever division they have competed in.

"I have confidence in my own ability and love my job and live for the Saturday’s and the three points and hopefully we will get a few of them for Halifax this year.

“I am really grateful for the opportunity to come to a big club. Halifax have been incredibly successful over the past two or three seasons.

"It's a club I have always kept an eye on and I have known quite a few lads who have played there over the years and obviously have managed in that area at Farsley Celtic.

“It’s got a good history in recent years and I am really excited for the challenge."

A historic name with ex-Football League pedigree they may be, but in terms of finances at least, it's fair to say that Halifax are not one of the 'big-hitters' in the National League.

It's no trade secret to say that a number of other clubs in English football's fifth tier will have greater financial resources.

Money certainly helps, but is no guarantor of success at this level. Halifax do get bang for their buck in fairness and have proved very canny recruiters of young and often discarded talent in the past.

Their location, within an hour's striking distance of several big cities including Leeds, Manchester, Bradford and Sheffield helps and their record in terms of recruitment and player development is up there with the very best in National League circles.

Lakeland, who won the Northern Premier League title with Farsley in 2018-19, continued: “I think recruitment has been something that Halifax have been incredibly good at in recent years and that’s why there is such a strong line of players who they have developed and moved on into the Football League. It’s something we have to try and continue.

"I feel recruitment has always been one of my strong points in my previous roles and I feel like we have mostly recruited pretty well and I have worked with quite a few lads who we have helped along their journey into the league.

"I have worked in Yorkshire previously and am pretty well connected in the area anyway. I have worked in Manchester with Curzon and down in Norfolk with King’s Lynn, so I feel like I have quite a wide network and good contacts book and hopefully I can tap into that in my tenure at Halifax and it will help us in any way we need it to. We are in a good catchment area. Particularly where the training ground is in Leeds and we’ve got Manchester and the Yorkshire area down to Sheffield and Doncaster and then up to the bottom side of the north east.

"We have a wide net of communicable journeys and in addition, we have got some accommodation.

"So if we needed to bring a handful of lads in from further afield, we have the ability to do that as well and we’ve no real restrictions in terms of where we can recruit players from."

With plenty of work to do on the recruitment front, with several key players having left in the close season, Lakeland's first few weeks in charge at The Shay have been hectic ones. Just how he likes it, in truth.

“I like long days and working hard," he added.

"It has been a really tough and busy first period, but I am learning day by day, more and more, about the people at the club and the club itself. I am doing whatever I can to get us going in the right direction."