Hi-Sho Silva Lining! Tobi Ready For Dover Return With Halifax

Doesn’t sound like the ideal start to the season, does it?

It was the exact scenario facing FC Halifax’s Tobi Sho-Silva this summer after arriving at the Shay Stadium from Dover.

Thankfully for the former Charlton, Welling and Bromley striker – it’s not turned out too badly.

Two months into the season and they’re riding high, scoring plenty of goals and are looking forward to Saturday’s live BT Sport game against Dover.

“These things happen in football but all we can do as players is continue to work hard and do your best and keep improving,” the striker told us. “I just make sure I do enough to get on the pitch and when I do, I work even harder to stay there. Regardless of who the manager is, I’ll always give my all.

“We’ve started well since Pete Wild came in. He’s done a great job since he’s come in and he’s got us going and got us together as a team. Not many people would’ve expected us to be where we are, but we’ve worked hard for everything we’ve got, and we just want it to continue.

“This season is a new season. If we looked at Halifax last season, you might not have thought we would be in the position we’re in at the moment. We’re just taking every game as it comes and giving our best when we can. We want to be hard to beat but we like to express ourselves when we can too.

“We’ve got a great team spirit and we work hard for each other. We all get along really well which I think goes a long way.”

With 23 goals, the Shaymen have outscored their counterparts in the Vanarama National League this season so far.

Sho-Silva has contributed with four himself while striker partner Liam McAlinden has six. The rest are made up of eight different goalscorers.

History will tell you having the classic ’20-goal-a-season’ man won’t harm your chances of getting into the EFL – but it’s not something that worries Sho-Silva.

He said: “The unselfishness that we have in the team and we’re all here to play for Halifax, we’re not bothered who scores – the team performance and getting the result will always be the most important thing to us.

“The boys all celebrate together when we score because we want the best for the club. We all have our own individual goals, that’s natural, but the team comes first.

“The goal is just to go out there and perform. If we do that, who knows where we can end up at the end of the season,” he added.

“We just take it one game at a time and not get too worried about what might or might not happen towards the end of the season because we can’t control it.”

Saturday’s game at Crabble sees the 24-year-old head back to the south coast club for the first time since leaving this summer.

And while some might revel in coming back to haunt their former club, Sho-Silva is just looking forward to seeing some old faces.

“I don’t hold any grudges,” he said. “But I’ve always believed in my ability. Football is a game of opinions so you might not get a chance at one team, but you will somewhere else. The important thing is to not take it too personally.

“The fans there are great, and the coaching staff helped me develop as a player on and off the pitch, so it’ll be nice to go there and see some familiar faces.

“It’s just another game. Yes, it’s on television but we’ve just got to go out there and give it our all and pray that everything falls into place on the day.

“I’ve been playing in the league for a few years and to get games on television is great coverage and hats off to the league for getting that done.”