FC Halifax will not change sensible tack despite reaching dizzy heights

FC Halifax Town will remain part-time following promotion to the Blue Square Bet Premier League, director Bobby Ham has confirmed.

The Shaymen clinched a return to the top tier of non-League football by beating Brackley Town 1-0 in Sunday’s Premier North final.

It was the reformed club’s third promotion in four years and continued the fightback from the dark days of 2008 when the old Halifax Town folded under the weight of debts that stood at £2m.

A new club, under the stewardship of chairman David Bosomworth and Ham, was immediately set up and entered the Northern Premier League Division One North – the eighth level of the English football pyramid.

Following Lee Gregory’s winner in Sunday’s final, Halifax will next season resume battle with a host of former Football League teams.

Director Ham told the Yorkshire Post: “The feeling at the final whistle was one of relief as much as joy.

“The players and staff had put so much effort into the season that it was great to see FC Halifax get the ultimate reward.

“We are now in what is, to all intents and purposes, Division Five and will be competing against 14 or 15 ex-Football League clubs.

“It is a big step up, and definitely our biggest yet. The higher you go life gets harder and next season will be all about consolidating our place in the Conference. It can be done.”

In confirming that Halifax do not have plans to go full-time this summer, Ham added: “Our situation and circumstances will be reviewed as we go along.

““If, after being in the division, we feel that the crowds can sustain such a move then we will possibly look at it.

“But you have to make sure. As a club, we have to walk before we can run and that is what we will do. I’d estimate 60 per cent (of Conference clubs) are full-time with others such as Hyde (who finished 18th last term) part-time. There are a few clubs who went full-time but have since moved back.”

Staying up is a tough ask as Farsley Celtic, the last Yorkshire side to win promotion to the Conference and remain part-time, proved by lasting just one season.

Halifax, however, will go up with a stadium befitting their newly-won status and a crowd base that suggests the club will be able to cope. The average crowd at The Shay has been around the 1,200 mark, which compared to 2011-12 represents a dip of around 300 people per game.

There have, though, been mitigating circumstances with this winter’s often Arctic weather having caused a flurry of postponements and a subsequent fixture backlog.

Ham added: “The weather caused us problems. One big disappointment was the Chester game being postponed (on March 2). At the time, they still needed a few points to clinch the title and we were expecting around 1,000 of their fans to travel and hoping the crowd would be 3,000-4,000.

“Instead, when the game was eventually rearranged, it was the final Thursday of the season and just 275 came from Chester (to make up an attendance of 1,262).

“We also went through a spell of playing three games per week for the final few weeks and that impacted on crowds. There is only so much money about.

“In the Conference, we’d anticipate there being much higher numbers of visiting supporters with teams like Wrexham, Grimsby, Macclesfield and Luton coming to The Shay.

“For the past five years, The Shay has been like Wembley for visiting teams. They have raised their games because it is quite a step up from a lot of the grounds we have been playing at.

“But now we will be in a division where the majority of stadiums have been in the Football League.”

Halifax staged Conference football for six years before the club’s demise in 2008. During that time, they were unfortunate not to win a Football League return in 2006 when Chris Wilder’s side led 2-1 in the play-off final against Hereford United only to lose in extra-time.

Ham added: “We were very much stepping into unknown territory five years ago when we took over so it is a wonderful feeling to know that the club has made such progress.

“Since Neil (Aspin, manager) came to the club four years ago, we have won two championships, were beaten in the play-off semi-finals last year and then this year we have won promotion via the play-offs.

“Together with the progress on the field, we feel the business has been run the right way off it as well. We now want to build on that. Being in the Conference means better crowds, the opportunity to appear on television and taking on better teams.

“There is also the prospect of a possible return to the Football League having moved closer.

“When we set out five years ago, that was the goal.

“There was no timescale, as such. We just thought it would be great to get FC Halifax back in the Football League.

“That remains the target and we won’t rest until we do it.

“But, equally, we are not going to do anything silly.

“We have got where we are now through planning and acting sensibly. That won’t change.”

As if to underline the good housekeeping practices employed by Halifax since the club was reformed in 2008, each season has brought a profit.

A number of variable factors have helped, including the 2011-12 FA Cup tie against Charlton Athletic being selected for live transmission and the deal that saw Jamie Vardy, now at Leicester City, leave The Shay in 2011 to join Fleetwood Town. Ham added: “We are already looking forward to Conference football next season and the challenge of making the step up.”