Halifax coach Richard Marshall says he had no hesitation in penning a new long-term contract with the club.
Marshall last week extended his existing deal at the Shay for a further two years, committing him to Fax until the end of 2019.
Marshall said: “We’ve been speaking for a while and I’ve been pleased with the support that the club has given me this year.
“I was more than happy to stay. I’m ambitious and want to do well in the sport, and I want to do that with Halifax.
“Next year we’ll have as strong, if not stronger team than this year, with a better mix of youth and experience. We’ll still be part-time, but we’ll have some quality players in the squad. We’re probably three to four signings short of where we need to be.
“We’re well underway with speaking to the current squad and have identified some key players elsewhere that we’d like to bring in.
“We’re not far off but there won’t be as many changes as there were last year. The aim now is to finish this season strong, and some of the lads involved are still playing for deals.”
Marshall admits that missing out on this year’s top four has been a disappointment but he insists the club will learn from the experience.
He added: “It was touch and go for a while, and there has been a lot of ups and downs, more so than last year.
“I think the competition has improved, and we’ve not been good enough in some of the tighter games.
“We drew at Whitehaven, got beaten by Swinton at home and then there was the game with Featherstone recently. We just haven’t been consistent enough. But we’ll learn a lot from it.”
This article was originally published in League Express, buy your copy of the paper every week in stores, or online at totalrl.com/le
