Barnet postponement was "unavoidable" says Town boss Millington

A frozen pitch at The Shay meant the game was called-off yesterday (Friday) morning.

"It's unavoidable really, it's one of those situations where there's an awful lot of games across the north of England that have been postponed," Millington told the Courier.

"Games at a higher level than us, where they've got greater resources and higher-quality pitches, have fallen foul of the weather, so we can't be too surprised that we've fallen victim to that as well."

Town are next in action at Southend on Tuesday, and Millington admitted the Barnet postponement offers the chance for some players in his squad to have a breather.

"We'd rather be playing, we plan far in advance so we don't really want to have games postponed," he said.

"So it is a cloud for us but the silver lining is that it's a time when players can benefit from a little bit of a breather.

"Some lads who've been playing a lot of minutes, some lads who've been particularly ill, there's a number of reasons why people might benefit from not having to compete, so we'll take that silver lining but ultimately, we want to play every game."

Jack Senior and Luke Summerfield both missed Tuesday's 3-1 win over Dorking.

"They both trained yesterday and trained very well," Millington said.

"It was a real tough session yesterday, in most cases they were covering up and around 10k, so we were pleased at their output.

"Summers and Jack look to be getting back to some kind of match sharpness."

When asked if both would have been involved against Barnet, the Town boss said: "Yeah I think they probably would have got back in the squad, whether or not they'd have been selected to start, we never quite got that far because the game was postponed before we got onto match prep.

"So we're not sure if they'd have got back in straight away, but both would have been in the matchday squad for sure."

Jesse Debrah captained Town on Tuesday, taking over from stand-in skipper Senior, who has captained Town regularly over the last few weeks.

"We've got our captains in place and they're all very strong leaders in their own way," Millington said.

"We've got a number of other captains within the group who are captains in all but name with the likes of Luke Summerfield and Jesse Debrah.

"Jack is a very important part of the leadership structure and he sets a great example, his performances are always an eight out of ten.

"He clearly cares about the club massively and takes a pride in representing Halifax Town.

"We're blessed with a good number of leaders who really care about the club.

"There was a time when people came to Halifax Town with a view to it being a platform to move on elsewhere, but now I believe that, yes people want to play at the highest level they possibly can, but while they're here I think they really do take a pride in representing the club and long may that continue."

Yamen Osawe is now back in full training and is expected to feature at some point over the next week.

"He trained yesterday, full training, he's getting back to full fitness and if he doesn't figure against Southend, I'd expect him to get minutes against Guiseley," Millington said.

On Jordan Keane, the Halifax manager said: "Similar to Yamen, he's been very ill but trained really well yesterday and looked sharper than I expected in fairness.

"He looks to be recovering from the illness really well."

And on Sam Minihan, Millington said: "Sam as Jordan, he looked to be sharp and fit yesterday so we were really pleased with his performance in training."

Millington said the illness that had swept through the Town squad has now largely cleared up.

"There's still people sniffing and coughing a bit more than we'd like," he said, "but no-one's suffering excessively at the moment."

On Tom Clarke and Jordan Slew, who were both on the bench in midweek, Millington said: "Both would say they're available for selection now.

"We're very fortunate now that we've more or less got a fully fit squad.

"There's one or two knocks and niggles, one or two sniffles in the group, but for the most part, we're almost back to full strength."

Millington said midfielder Kian Spence is feeling "a bit under the weather," adding: "As we know from the number of players who've had illnesses, it'll clear up and thankfully it's not an injury, just an illness."

On whether winger Sam Smart is part of his plans having returned from loan at Dagenham and Redbridge, Millington said: "Sam's working incredibly hard in training to put himself in the best possible position to be available for selection.

"He's obviously got some stiff competition in some of the lads who've established themselves in recent weeks, and who may take a bit of work to dislodge.

"But he's certainly doing everything he can to put himself in contention."