Steel Park is set to welcome its first visitors of 2012 tomorrow, as Halifax Town travel south to do battle with the Steelmen.

It is set to be an emotional occasion, with the Blue Square Bet North fixture falling on the first year anniversary of Corby Town’s former chairman Peter Mallinger. The club have confirmed that the match against Halifax will mark the first ever ‘Peter Mallinger Day’ with many tributes set to be paid to the visionary behind Corby’s new home and current Conference level status.

Manager Graham Drury has called on his side to honour their former driving force with a win against the Shaymen and thus claim their first home victory in six weeks.

The match follows Corby’s first win in six against previous voodoo-team Solihull Moors on New Years Day. A debut double from Mark Jones called an end to the Steelmen’s bad form, but despite a dire December; a victory against Halifax Town could move Drury’s outfit back to within one point of the play-off positions.

Although aggrieved at the Steelmen’s Boxing Day performance against the Moors, manager Drury declared himself ‘delighted’ with the response by his players at Damson Park and has called for more of the same from his side against Halifax.

Corby emerged as shock winners of the two side’s last encounter, stunning the Shaymen with a 3-1 victory on the first day of the season. Halifax defender Liam Hogan gifted an opener to the Steelmen when he headed into the back of his own net.

The home side were quick to reply and equalised two minutes later by way of a Danny Holland tap-in. However their swift comeback proved to be in vain, with late goals from Jordan Smith and Sam Ives ensuring the Steelmen left the Shay victorious.

Steelmen boss Drury has revealed he would love a repeat of the scoreline, but admits Neil Aspin’s side are a much stronger outfit then the team Corby faced in August.

Halifax themselves are determined to exact revenge for their opening-day defeat, which still smarts for Shaymen captain Tom Baker.

Talking to local press, he said: “We came off the pitch at the end of a poor second half really disappointed to have started the season with a defeat. We need to put that right on Saturday.”

Despite a few notable poor results since then, including a 5-1 home defeat to Vauxhall Motors, the Shaymen find themselves 5th in the Blue Square Bet North and sitting comfortably within the play-off area.

They’ll be aiming for their fifth league win on the bounce when they take to the field at Steel Park and if results go their way they could leapfrog Nuneaton into 4th place.

The Shaymen have also found a killer touch in front of goal recently, netting eighteen goals in their last six matches. Top scorer Lee Gregory will be looking to increase his personal tally of 13 for the season and is expected to start against the Steelmen.

Corby ‘stopper Chris Mackenzie is set to captain the side again, with regular skipper Phil Gulliver in the midst of serving a three match ban.

Paul Malone has been unable to shake an ankle injury and will watch the game from the sidelines. Jordan Spruce and Matt Rhead have the same complaint and are thought to be doubtful for the game against Neil Aspin’s outfit.