Liam Finn: Reaching the Championship play-offs is Halifax Panthers’ ‘priority’ after ‘big test’ to retain 1895 Cup dawns

The upcoming new season has seen a change to the fixture schedule with the 1895 Cup - which provides a more realistic opportunity for clubs in the second tier and below to reach a Wembley final - taking precedence in the early weeks, with the competition starting on Sunday, January 28. The new-look format sees seven groups of three teams, with the winners advancing to the quarter finals along with the best second-placed team.

Fax will play League 1’s Oldham and Rochdale away from The Shay as they look to repeat their triumphant Wembley exploits from last season. But their Championship campaign does not begin until Sunday, March 17.

Finn admitted: “The fixture format is a bit of a bizarre one but we will come up with a plan to attack it. I don’t really understand the reasoning behind delaying the league season start. To me, it would have made more sense to crack on with the league and then have the cups a few weeks into the season to assess where you’re at and then teams can decide how they want to attack the cups.

“Maybe they’re under a bit of pressure to get them in on time with the final being moved forward.

“Nobody wants to give anything away but there’s a fair bit to get through before you can even start to talk about it (winning the 1895 Cup again). With it being at the start of the season it is a little bit different on what you want to focus on. Ultimately, as a Halifax group, we want to be in those play-offs at the end of the season. That’s the priority. That is what we are looking to improve on. Anything that happens in the cup is a bonus.

“We saw last year that the coaching staff and everybody around the club, board and supporters included in that, were not happy to be scrapping to be in the play-offs on the last day of the season. We have to make sure we focus on the league season but we are not taking anything away from the cup. We will be going for that as well. That’s just an added bonus and usually it’s a distraction but it’s first up, so we’ll come out and give it our best shot.”

And Finn believes that Oldham will provide a “tricky” test in their 1895 Cup opener.

“The Oldham squad is not a League 1 squad,” he said. “That game, away from home, against a lot of seasoned professionals who you expect to be all fully fit off the back of a good pre-season, I think that will be a really tricky Championship-style fixture.

“I can’t see it as anything other than a big test to start the season off to be honest.”

When the Championship campaign finally gets underway in March, Finn will be coming up against his former club, Dewsbury Rams.

He said: “We have got to go there at some point and play them. Barring the two games we play against them I hope they do well.”