Goalkeepers
Yann Fillion, Dan Clarke, Aidan Rushenas
There's a question I ask myself to gauge a goalkeeper's performance on any given day, and that question is this: did I notice he was there? If the answer is no, they probably had a good game. If the answer is yes, they either had an exceptional game due to a high volume of saves... or they had a howler.
In the case of Halifax Wanderers goalkeeper Yann Fillion, the former very much applies. His presence barely registered with me on most match days, and this fact is the highest compliment I could possibly give him. I sometimes feel as though I've left a relationship with someone wildly unpredictable and erratic, and found love with someone stable and serene instead.
As a shot-stopper, Yann is fantastic. As a presence on set-pieces, he’s excellent. As a passer, he’s self-aware. He knows this team builds through the CBs and the pivot(s). He knows that getting the ball to Daniel Nimick or Lorenzo Callegari as quickly as possible is how we progress through the thirds. This understanding between coaching staff and player of his ceiling here is mutually beneficial.
It's to Yann's credit that when I look around the league, there is no other goalkeeper I’d rather have at our club. He’s our calm, competent, and completely nailed on #1. May I continue to never notice he's there.
Understudy to Yann throughout the 2024 season will be either Dan Clarke or Aiden Rushenas.
Each of their aims for the year will be to gain some professional minutes. Due to last season’s arc (first-win anxiety giving way to a high-stakes play-off run), there were never any “soft” matches to give to Aiden Rushenas. This year's #2 will hope 2024 is different.
Defenders
Daniel Nimick, Cale Loughrey, Julian Dunn, Kareem Sow, Zach Fernandez, Wesley Timoteo, Riley Ferrazzo
Before writing about this season’s defenders, it’s probably a good idea to talk about last season’s defensive structure. While we started games with a back four, in attacking phases it would become a back three, with a 3-2 rest-defence.
This was done in one of two ways. Either the RB or LB would tuck into central midfield alongside Lorenzo Callegari. Or, increasingly, the RB would become the RW, and the LB would tuck inside as a LCB. The latter of which is shown below:
There'll be variation to this, of course. Think of any one of the RB, LB, RW, and LW as contenders to jump inside to form part of the box depending on the opponents. We could also see a Leverkusen-y 3-4-2-1 with 3 out-and-out CBs and high-and-wide WBs. But regardless, it's a good idea to frame the following look at Halifax's defenders with this structure in mind.
Daniel Nimick (CB), then – he’s not bad, is he?
The Yorkfoundlander had a superb first season in the professional game, one which arguably should have ended with an MLS/European move (though this will come sooner rather than later.)
The first thing that stands out about Nimick is the type of athlete he is. His stature and movement are that of a CB and a ST rolled into one. While CBs can sometimes be clunky in how they travel, Nimick’s movements are smooth.
In possession, he’s very good. He can punch it into central areas, he can hit his LW with a long switch, and he can do these things with serenity. This technical security is a hugely important characteristic for a Patrice Gheisar CB to have.
Nowadays, given how good possession-based teams are at playing out, opponents are increasingly reluctant to press for fear of being exposed. As a result, CBs are seeing a lot of the ball and being trusted at a crucial stage of the build-up. Having a player like Nimick, who was previously a midfielder, is an ace up Halifax’s sleeve.
Aside from the physical qualities he possesses, the most impressive thing about him is his football IQ. He demonstrated his intelligence by quickly understanding the RCB assignment he’d been given. It was a role that required Nimick to play as a CB, but also as RB cover for Zachary Fernandez, who often found himself in the final third.
For all these reasons and more, the 23-year-old remains firmly established as the club’s crown jewel, and its most obviously sellable asset.
Partnering Daniel Nimick for the majority of 2023 was another returnee, Cale Loughrey (CB/LB).
Left-footed CBs are at a premium in the modern game. When receiving the ball, players naturally shape to their dominant side. As a result, having two right-footed CBs can lead to a right-sided bias in the build-up, and by extension a predictable attacking structure. A left-footed CB such as Loughrey, who naturally shapes to the left, offers variation in the angles we build from and goes someway to nullifying this issue.
It's this left footedness that also makes him a suitable LB option too, especially within a structure which sees the LB roll inside as a LCB, as shown above.
The next stage of Cale Loughrey’s development will come in how he uses the ball. On a recent episode of The Wanderer Grounds Podcast, Loughrey spoke about the work he’d been doing during the off-season on his passing. It’s the most obviously improvable area of his game, and one he clearly cares about developing. His goal, he said, was to build some variety into the types of passes he plays, to be able to hit anyone on the pitch with any kind of pass. It’s much like a golfer having different clubs in their bag.
Should Loughrey improve on this front, he’d be complementing a solid skill set elsewhere. His robustness in one-on-ones, his positional awareness to sniff out danger, and his dominance on set-pieces are what got him to this level. Adding the final 10% gives him every chance of moving even higher.
Rounding out the 2024 CBs are Julian Dunn and Kareem Sow.
Julian Dunn (CB) is arguably the most eye-catching move of the Halifax Wanderers off-season. After an excellent 2020 Island Games with Valour, and spells with TFC and TFCII, the 23-year-old signed with HamKam in the Norwegian first-tier. Such a move should’ve been the next step in an upwards trajectory, but a serious knee injury in June 2022 swiftly and devastatingly slammed the brakes.
After a long rehabilitation process, Dunn is back. From conversations I’ve had with people around the club, he has passed all the necessary medical benchmarks and is considered fully recovered. Despite this fact, concerns over his fitness will likely linger in the short-term. It’s important to remember, however, what a marvelous player he is.
I have clear memories of watching Dunn at the Island Games. He was an aggressive, front-footed, dual-heavy CB. Which is fantastic, of course, but his physicality shouldn’t overshadow his quality on the ball, too.
Easing him in and managing the muscle injuries that can occur after a big knee injury will be vital to this move’s success. Should he remain fit, he'll partner with either Dan Nimick or Cale Loughrey at CB, or even with both simultaneously if Loughrey is used as a LB/LCB.
Kareem Sow’s (CB/LB) signing is a lovely story. After being part of Halifax Wanderers in one form or another since 2021, Sow gets the ending he and the club were always hoping for.
After moving from U-Sport prospect to first-teamer, to U23 player to volunteer trainer, all to allow him to complete his studies, Sow now finds himself as a fully integrated, card-carrying member of the first-team set-up.
Given the quality in central defensive areas, the 23-year-old feels like a very solid depth piece as of now, given he can fill in as a CB or a LB.
Next up, the full-backs, starting with Riley Ferrazzo (RB/LB/RW) - a man who can seemingly play anywhere.
But first, a brief tangent.
There was this mate I had at university who was really into movies – or cinema, as he preferred to put it. And he wasn’t into cinema in the manner that most people are into it, but rather in a relentlessly smug way, one totally lacking in self-awareness or irony.
He’d affectedly wave a cigarette around while he mused on the stunning audacity of whichever Italian art house movie he’d just forced me to watch, a movie which, by any actual metric of quality, was objectively shit.
He'd dismissively roll his eyes at the sight of a Pulp Fiction poster on fellow student's wall, seemingly incredulous that anyone's tastes could be so ghastly and unrefined.
And he'd do all these things with an unwavering sense of self-importance.
He was, now that I think about it, a bit of a knob.
And I bring all this up because in the case of Riley Ferrazzo, I fear that I have become a facsimile of that tedious old friend of mine. It is I who is now the knob.
At the core of this fear is the unbearably haughty conviction I have that while every other Halifax Wanderers supporter sees Ferrazzo as a pretty good player, only I really understand him, and only I really see the many compellingly brilliant layers to his game.
With Ferrazzo, I think it’s helpful to watch what he does when he doesn’t have the ball. He scurries around the pitch undetected, popping up in pockets of central space, drifting into wide areas, floating between the lines. It all looks a bit random, but it isn’t. He has a magnetic pull to the ball, and he has the instinct to always be available to receive a pass.
By positioning himself as the team’s release valve, Ferrazzo becomes one of those ‘player’s player’ types. Someone his teammates presumably have a high appreciation of. The only hindrance for him is that in Lorenzo Callegari, Halifax has the league’s finest release valve.
But while a player like Callegari makes some of Ferrazzo’s qualities redundant, it doesn’t diminish them. He’s a fantastic footballer, even if I conceitedly – and likely falsely – believe I’m the only one who sees it.
Another full-back returning to the Grounds this year is Zach Fernandez (RB/LB), a player who starts the season with a point to prove.
As reported by Josh Healey of Wanderers Notebook, a move – presumably to MLS or Europe - fell through for the 22-year-old. While this would have caused understandable frustration for Fernandez, it also presents an opportunity to harness his setback into something positive.
When recruitment teams appraise potential signings, they're not just looking what they do on the ball. I remember reading a story about Arsenal's signing of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale in 2022. As part of the scouting process, an analyst cut up footage of the two minutes after each of the goals Ramsdale had conceded the previous season. How downbeat did he look? How had his body language changed? Was he sulking? Had he already brushed it off? These are the types of soft factors being considered prior to clubs investing in new talent.
It's important then, that Fernandez channels his off-season disappointment into something positive.
It's going to be interesting to see what Fernandez’s role this season is. He was used as a very attacking RB – basically a RW – for much of 2023, before a surprising late-season switch to LB in selected games.
I must admit, for the first five minutes of the Fernandez/LB experiment, I wasn't convinced. I felt as though the element of unpredictability it brought wasn’t enough of a marginal gain to offset what we lost from an attacking perspective on the right. I love Fernandez as a high-and-wide RB/RW. The way he can stretch teams, the way he can overlap and deliver balls into the box, and crucially the way his recovery pace allows that back three to become a four very quickly.
But over time, I recognized the benefits of it, and Fernandez started to introduce the same attributes he brought to the right side of the pitch to the left (see his last-minute assist vs. Ottawa).
It’s of huge credit to the player that he became as good on the left as he is on the right. We have arguably the finest full-back in the league at the club, and I’m not sure that gets said enough.
Rounding out the defenders is Wesley Timoteo (LB, LW, RW). Timoteo’s season-long arc was one of the most pleasing stories of 2023. This was a player who was signed as a winger but ended up mastering a LB/LCB hybrid role instead.
His adaptation to this positional change was remarkable. On paper, given his end-product numbers, you’d probably rather see him closer to the opposition goal than your own. But sensing a squad need and an opportunity for minutes after Ryan James’ injury, Timoteo dug in and learned a new-ish position (the ‘ish’ because he’d played as a more traditional, up-and-down LB before).
I’m not sure where Wesley Timoteo’s future lies on the pitch. I love him as LB/LCB, but he could be equally good in a more advanced role. I’ve also privately held a long-standing suspicion that he would suit the role of a #10 in Halifax’s system. He’s good in small spaces, good at playing the final ball, and if we use last season’s structure as a framework – the #10 would peel out to the LW to create space for Massimo Ferrin – it’s a position analogous with his skillset.
But that’s a conversation for another time. For now, we have ourselves a fantastic LB. Or LCB. Or LW. Or RW. Or maybe, just maybe, all the above.
Midfielders
Lorenzo Callegari, Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé, Andre Rampersad, Giorgio Probo, Vitor Dias, Aidan Daniels, Tomas Giraldo, Camilo Vasconcelos
Where to start with Lorenzo Callegari (CM)? The pint-sized Parisian was a revelation in 2023. Artist, maestro, and deserved recipient of the Halifax Wanderers Player of the Year award.
Sitting at the base of the Halifax midfield, Callegari was the team’s beating heart throughout the campaign. Picking the ball up off a CB, he’d seek out line breaking passes, drilled diagonals, lofted through balls. His passing stats are astonishing. His touches per-game stats more so.
You also get the sense he’s Patrice Gheisar’s eyes and ears on the pitch. Coaches as ideologically faithful as Patrice need players like Lorenzo. He’s a way of ensuring the Halifax Wanderers house-style – pass, pass, pass, pass – isn’t sacrificed when the game becomes tense, when the temperature is turned up.
If there is a flaw to Callegari, it’s that he can’t always be on the pitch. And by being such a focal point for the team, his absence is keenly felt. Last season, he was the closest thing to a single point of failure Halifax Wanderers had (lest we forget York in May), simply because the club lacked the personnel to fully replace his specific qualities.
The recruitment team has gone some way to addressing this issue with the signing of Girogio Probo (CM/AM).
While I’ve seen him described as an attacking midfielder – with good reason, he made 14 assists in the NCAA last season - I feel he’s been brought in as more of a Lorenzo Callegari analog (EDIT: I was wrong - he's very much going to be a #10).
Like Callegari, Probo can sit at the base of a midfield and dictate. He’s a crisp, punchy passer with a beautifully lofted long ball in his arsenal, something which is clearly a Halifax Wanderers workaround in certain game states. With teams recognizing Wanderers ability to retain and recycle possession in 2023, opponents would often try to squeeze the pitch to remove space to play between the lines. Having someone who can be a QB from deep areas of the pitch – Nimick can do this, too – stretches the game, particularly with the wide pace Halifax has.
Pre-season has also seen the Italian thriving as a #10. His ability to receive the ball on the turn, to control half-spaces, and to find passes that no-one else on the pitch can see has stood out to observers. Halifax may have unearthed another gem.
Ironically, given his status as the club’s longest servant, one player who’ll be looking for a fresh start this season is Andre Rampersad (CM).
2023 was an awkward year for the club captain. After four years under a head-coach who was big on individualistic expression and relatively loose in terms of in-possession principles, a shift to a highly detailed positional coach with specific instructions on how a role should be played was always going to result in some teething problems.
Mix this philosophical change with a change in position - several attempts to play him as a #10 never quite clicked - and frequent call-ups to the Trinidad & Tobago national team, it’s apparent that the conditions were never quite ripe for Andre Rampersad Circa 2019-2022 to reappear.
We all know the player is still in there though. There were flashes of it late in the season as he reverted back to playing as a CM, tucked in alongside Lorenzo Callegari. And this, you suspect, is where his future with the group is. The difference now is that rather than being the first name on the team sheet, the 29-year-old is part of the midfield rotation. At his age, with his continued commitment to his national team, this is no bad thing.
A clear objective this off-season has been to add more experience into the squad. Last year, Halifax Wanderers regularly put out the youngest XI in the league with only Vancouver FC being younger overall. A player signed to rectify this is Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé (CM/LB).
Gagnon-Laparé – or Jeremy as I like to call him, given my inability to pronounce any surname that isn’t a close cousin of Smith or Jones – arrives back in Halifax after a year with York United.
The 28-year-old is a multi-positional, left-footed, Swiss Army Knife of a player. He can operate as deep lying CM in a double-pivot, as a more advanced attacking CM between the lines, or as a LB.
My favourite thing about Jeremy is his ability to let the game flow through him. A flaw in some midfielders is the tendency to take a rhythm-killing extra touch when the pace of a pass requires them to be a sieve through which the ball moves. JGL recognises that his responsibility, first and foremost, is to be a conduit rather than a speed bump.
Having a player of his quality as a starter is fantastic but having him as part of a midfield rotation along with others of equal or higher quality is even better. When you compare the 2024 depth with last season’s, it’s clear that the floor of the team has been significantly raised.
A quick word on midfield structure before we look at the more attacking central options. Last season’s box midfield had several iterations. To begin the season, it was formed by playing with two #10s at the top of the box, and a single pivot next to an inverted RB/LB at the base. For example:
As the season progressed however, it was increasingly formed by playing a double pivot at the base of the box, and a lone #10 alongside an inverted RW at the tip:
One player perfectly suited to both types of #10 in this system is our latest token Brazilian, Vitor Dias (AM/RW).
When considering Dias’ qualities, it’s tempting to revert to clichés. I mean, he’s Brazilian, isn’t he? And he’s a #10. And most importantly, he does the one thing any player who wants to loudly project flair does: he wears his socks rolled down.
These details conjure a very specific type of player in your mind. The funny thing about Vitor Dias though, is that this clichéd idea of him is pretty much bang on the money. Because a playmaking Brazilian #10 is exactly what he is.
The 25-year-old can perform this role from a central starting position or as an Aidan Daniels-like inverted RW. It almost makes too much sense to imagine Dias in the latter role with Zach Fernandez overlapping into the space he vacates. Dias being left-footed makes him a more natural fit for this than the right-footed Aidan Daniels – whose future, as I’ll get to, feels like it may be as a central #10 - although he perhaps lacks Daniels ability to drive centrally at pace.
I recently spoke to an MLS scout about Dias, one who had scouted him while he was in college. This is what he had to say:
He was a #10 at college. Creative, good set piece delivery, played behind the ST. At STL2 they often used him at ST outright, and SKCII he split time between a #10 and DM, where he was a single pivot in a 4-3-3. He played out wide too, on both sides. Versatile, more than he showed at college.
He was agile with a good first step, but not especially fast. Good technique and eye for a pass. His technicals were well above average for NCAA and he could score and assist.
Didn't look to be an MLS-caliber player, though he would've probably gotten a look if he wasn't an international.
The standout detail here is the number of different positions he’s featured in over the past few years. While this adaptability is an asset, I’m sure he’ll be looking to nail down a position of his own – likely as a #10 - in Halifax.
As alluded to a moment ago, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Aidan Daniels (AM/RW/LW) utilized as a more traditional #10 in 2024, rather than the inverted RW #10 he was last season.
The rationale behind this thinking is a consideration of the type of players Halifax Wanderers have added to the attacking group recently. With Vitor Dias and Ryan Telfer, the club now has two left-footed attackers who will naturally drift centrally from the right side of the pitch to shift the ball onto their dominant foot.
As a result, the central #10 feels like a position Aidan Daniels can really carve out for himself this season.
It doesn’t take much to imagine Daniels receiving the ball in the left half-space, spinning his marker, driving diagonally towards goal, and lashing a shot from distance. Nor does it take much to imagine him in a mutually beneficial partnership with Massimo Ferrin on that side of the pitch.
I like Daniels a lot, I have to say. There was an understandable feeling at the end of 2022 that it wasn’t a good club/player fit, but his 2023 redemption arc was extremely satisfying for all the Aidanites who walk among us. Of which I most certainly include myself.
The final two midfielders – and, crucially, players who qualify for U21 minutes – are Tomas Giraldo and Camilo Vasconcelos.
When he was fit, Tomas Giraldo (AM) was the off-the-ball #10 last season’s system demanded. While many of us have a preconceived idea what a #10 is, Giraldo - alongside Calum Watson – reinterpreted the role in 2023.
The 20-year-old was a chaos agent. He chased and harried down opposition defenders, pressed in a two with the ST, and selflessly pulled defenders out of position to create space for others. He also scored a very important goal in the win against Ottawa.
With the addition of Vitor Dias, it feels as though Tomas Giraldo has been slightly forgotten about. It’s worth remembering his pedigree, though. This is a player, pre-injury, who earned a first-team contract in Montreal.
The goal for 2024 should be as follows: firstly, stay fit. And secondly, deliver a level of on-the-ball quality that matches his exceptional off-the-ball work.
I haven’t seen much of Camilo Vasconcelos (AM/RW/LW) besides the summer U23 matches and his cameo in Winnipeg, but he’s clearly a player the coaching staff like. The 18-year-old can occupy several roles on the interior and exterior of the pitch, as well as offering important U21 minutes.
One characteristic which did jump out over the summer was his ability to quickly increase the tempo of the game. We’ve all watched passages of play where the ball slowly moves from side to side while players wait for gaps to appear, but Vasconcelos has a knack of injecting speed and explosiveness into game states such as these. He could be a valuable option from the bench against tired opposition.
Attack
Christian Volesky, Tiago Coimbra, Ryan Telfer, Massimo Ferrin
In October of last year, Anthony Abbott and I interviewed Patrice Gheisar for the Down the Pub Podcast.
Late in our interview, we asked Patrice what he considered to be the biggest recruitment need of the off-season. “A striker, a real #9” was his immediate reply, and it was hard to argue with him. While last season was the highest scoring in the club’s history, there was the lingering sense that we’d left a lot of goals out on the pitch.
The player signed to solve this issue is Christian Volesky (ST).
The American arrives in Halifax with a solid USL résumé. Across 209 appearances in the competition, he has 62 goals and 17 assists. In terms of production, he’s been fairly consistent across that period, usually averaging around a goal every three games. Given the comparative levels of USL and CPL, it’s fair to expect a similar return in 2024.
He’s an instinctive, ice-in-the-veins type, Volesky. An off-the-shoulder killer with side-footers, laces, dinks, chips, and pokes.
Pre-season is going to be hugely important for the speed of his adaptation to the club as his new teammates learn his movements and timings.
Does he have any tells? Does he insinuate a specific type of through-ball with his eyes? Does he curve his runs inwards from a wide starting position? Does he run the channels? All these questions will be getting workshopped at the BMO Soccer Centre as we speak.
Volesky isn’t just a goalscorer. During his spell in USL, the 31-year-old also contributed a healthy number of assists. A lot of past and future Halifax Wanderers goals live in the exterior of the pitch with the likes of Massimo Ferrin, and, as a result, a Halifax Wanderers ST must be as much a facilitator as he is a goalscorer.
Speaking of facilitation, a player sure to learn from Christian Volesky is Tiago Coimbra (ST).
Tiago Coimbra is a player you can’t help but love. He’s got a wonderfully endearing way of carrying himself on the pitch. He’s a relentless bundle of energy and infectious enthusiasm.
With the way he throws his body around during games, I'm not entirely sure he knows how strong he actually is. He sometimes reminds me of Lenny from Of Mice and Men, who, without realising the extent of his own ludicrous strength, accidentally pets his beloved mouse to death. Through this lens, I can imagine a 5’6’ Camilo Vasconcelos, after scoring a late winner this season, fearfully scurrying away from a bounding, desperate-to-celebrate Tiago Coimba.
(“Put the child down, Tiago! He can barely breathe!”)
None of which is to underestimate the player in any way. It’s clear from speaking to people at the club that the 20-year-old is highly rated by those who matter. I thought we saw real, tangible progress from Coimbra throughout last season, particularly in his back-to-goal work. Considering how talented he is when he's facing the goal, this rounding of his skillset will make him a force.
One task for the coaching staff will be to channel his enthusiasm. Furiously chasing down a lost cause plays great to the gallery, but if it means that 10 seconds later you’re too tired to run the channel, was it worth it? Maybe, if it galvanizes a quiet crowd. Maybe not, if it’s late in the game and you’re flagging.
Still, I’m of the opinion that you don’t want to polish this enthusiasm too much. It’s infectious and loveable, much like the young man who projects it.
Given the slightly polarizing response to his signing, it may take Ryan Telfer (RW/LW/ST) a little longer to feel Coimbra-levels of love from Halifax Wanderers supporters.
On the day of the announcement, I found some of the lingering antipathy towards Telfer a little overblown. Much of this was a result of an incident in 2022 when, after scoring, the Trinidadian shushed The Kitchen. The reason for this, as some may remember, is that he'd spent much of the game being goaded as a 'TFC reject'.
So, putting a finger to his lips in response to this... fair fucks, no?
Pleasingly, it seems to be water under the bridge. At last night's kit launch there was a fantastic photo of Telfer, along with members of Block 108, smiling broadly as they shushed the camera. Marvelous.
At 29-years-old, Telfer is further evidence of a move towards experience. He’s a regular international with Trinidad & Tobago and has North American playing experience in MLS, CPL, MLS Next Pro and USL.
He always feels like a bigger player than his actual height reflects. He’s a barrelly, upper body type. Very strong, very fast, and another left-footer in the last third of the pitch. He can also plug into all three offensive positions without a problem.
Much like Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé, I don’t see Telfer as a player who raises the ceiling of the squad, but he certainly raises the floor of it. With all due respect to the likes of Ffumpa Mwandwe, Ryan Telfer is an upgrade to the club’s RW/LW/ST rotation.
Last, but certainly not least, is the brilliant Massimo Ferrin (LW/ST).
Despite being a prolific L1O goalscorer, there were no guarantees that Ferrin’s qualities would translate to a higher level. A strong start to the season quietened those doubts. While injuries slowed him down in May and June, a tremendous summer and autumn had the 25-year-old included in Player of the Year conversations.
Massimo Ferrin’s superpower is his ability to separate. Tasked with holding Wanderers’ width on the left last season, he would usually have a RB touch-tight to him. His ability to create separation from his marker either before the ball arrived or with his first touch was sensational.
If I was to ask you to imagine Massimo Ferrin doing something, anything, on a football pitch, what do you see? Is it a memory of him moving left-to-centre with the ball at his feet and getting a shot off, all while a hapless RB grasps and grapples at his back? My guess is that it is. The goal versus Forge – the Halifax Wanderers goal of the season – is the most unequivocal example of this.
Should Massimo continue his trajectory into the 2024 season – and I see no reason why he won’t – expect those Player of the Year conversations to return.
And there we have it.
What comes next is yet to be written. How this far this club goes in 2024 is not yet known. But as we sit here a week or so out from the first match of pre-season, it’s hard not to feel those first wonderful pulses of excitement and anticipation.
Soon enough the days will be longer, the air will be warmer, and then, on one fine morning, we’ll swing our legs from our beds, boil our pots of coffee, and – with heads full of hope - begin our journey to the Wanderers Grounds.
I’ll see you there.
Gary is an Arsenal supporting, Halifax-based Brit who moved to Canada in 2016 unaware that he was about to fall in love with another football team. He can be found on on Twitter at @FromAwaysHFX. He also guests on the Down the Pub Podcast - a CPL/Halifax Wanderers-focused podcast - alongside Anthony Abbott.
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