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Gateshead: It’s An Exciting Time

Posted by Luke Davis
Posted on Wed 8 Mar 2023
Posted in Interviews

Following FC Halifax Town’s 0-0 draw away at Gateshead, manager Chris Millington spoke to Shaymen TV to give his thoughts on the game.

“I think it was a reasonably entertaining game,” Millington said. “Gateshead are a good team, I’m surprised at where they are in the league. I remember doing the analysis on them when they came to the Shay, and they are really slick on the ball, they move it well, they’ve got some great rotations, they stretch your shape defensively, and they make you work for every regain and they did that again tonight. First half, they were very good, second half though, we were better in terms of our defensive shape and what we asked of the lads was to be better on the ball, maintain possession for longer periods. Confidence more than anything, be confident and be willing to stay on the ball for longer periods. They did that and over the 90 minutes, it’s a tough call, because we’ve had the clearer chances, their keeper has made more emergency saves than Sam has. But, they could argue they’ve had the better of the possession. Most people would say it’s a fair result being a draw, but we’re just frustrated we’ve not taken one of those chances and taken all three points because we feel we just deserve it based on the chances.”

Town named the same starting XI for the third game in a row, however Millington was happy to see Jack Senior make his return from injury as he came on in the second half.

“You’ve got Jack coming back and looking like he’s never been away,” Millington told Shaymen TV. “You look at all the players coming on, you’ve also got Mani Dieseruvwe coming on fresh after a few games rest. Jack also had an immediate impact in our possession, he’s great at defending 1 Vs 1s, and when we got higher up the pitch, he linked up with Harvey Gilmour and Milli Alli really well and created opportunities. It was great to see him back but then you’ve Festus Arthur on the bench, as well as Luke Summerfield and Matt Warburton who are getting back to full fitness. It’s an exciting time, because we’re three clean sheets on the bounce, unbeaten in three, and we’ve got some really important players coming back and getting back to full fitness. It feels like we’re on the up.”

For the second game in a row, Town came up against top form as Filip Marschall made a number of really good saves to deny the Shaymen.

“In the first half he’s pulled off a couple of really good saves off of ser-pieces,” Millington said. “It’d be nice for a keeper to have a poor game against us for once and maybe not play quite so well. But we’ve still got to have a bit more about us in the box and that’s going to be the large focus of the work going into Aldershot.”

Up next for Town is another trip away, this time down to Aldershot for the FA Trophy quarter final.

“Really excited and really looking forward to it,” Millington told Shaymen TV. “As a group, everybody is up for it, and everybody wants to win the game and progress. Clearly we’ve got a bit of history there that we want to put right and I think we’re in a very different place to when we went there earlier this season. There’s a real energy and a real unity about the group. With bodies coming back that I’ve mentioned getting back to full fitness, it’s an exciting time. If we can start taking some of these chances, I think it could be a really exciting run in and end to the season.”

Watch the full interview on Shaymen TV.

Read more posts by Luke Davis

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