Following FC Halifax Town’s 1-0 loss away at Notts County, manager Chris Millington spoke to Shaymen TV to give his thoughts on the game.
“It was a very tough game,” Millington said. “First and foremost, Notts County are probably the best team we will play this year, I think they are the best team we’ve played this season. They’re incredible at their rotations, the way they move, and their technical ability in the way they pick the right area to play in regardless of how you press them, they know in which area the space is and where the spare man is. It’s phenomenal so credit to them. I’ll get criticised today for sure, but I will say the effort and application from the men that have run out in a Halifax shirt tonight, everyone should be proud of because they’ve been phenomenal. The level of concentration to maintain the defensive discipline is exhausting in itself, but to do that when you’re running 10-12km, it’s something special. I think today, the lads have shown a response to Wednesday night, they’ve shown a response in their work-rate and their desire to do the right thing by the club and shirt and to a man, they should go out of here with their head held high.”
Town had been defending well during the opening periods, but a mistake at the back allowed Notts to get themselves in front through Macaulay Langstaff.
“We’ve got a lot of young lads here,” Millington told Shaymen TV. “We’ve got a lot of lads who are in their break-through season. They are good footballers, they care desperately for the football club, and they want to be successful at Halifax Town. We’ve got to accept that in certain circumstances, they’re going to make mistakes. If it was possible for us to have a Luke Summerfield in there just calming it down, then that would be wonderful, but we haven’t got him at the moment and we haven’t got the like of him. So, we’re relying on a good number of lads who are making their first foray into football and being regular starters in the National League and today they’ve shown they can cope with it, other than one defensive slip up. Without that, we could have been coming away with a point against an outstanding football team.”
Town struggled to create any chances of meaning with the majority of the game being played in the Halifax half.
“We knew that was going to be the case,” Millington said. “We knew we were going to have to rely on a set-piece, counter attack, or potentially a little spell at the end of the game where we might get more possession higher up the pitch. We knew we would have to work hard to achieve that. The key to being able to impose ourselves more would have been managing to keep a clean sheet well into the second half, which we unfortunately didn’t manage. I’m just full of praise for the boys and focusing on the positives today which is; the discipline, the commitment, and the work rate of a group of young men who have gone out and shown a great reaction to a poor performance on Wednesday night.”
Up next for the Shaymen is a break in league action as we travel to Harrow Borough for Town’s long-awaited FA Trophy tie.
“Our focus now is all about maintaining that level of discipline,” Millington told Shaymen TV. “Maintaining the organisation, the commitment to the cause, and making sure we get those types of performances out of the lads week in, week out. I have no fear and no doubt that if the lads perform to those levels on a regular basis, then we will be successful.”
Watch the full interview on Shaymen TV.
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