FC Halifax Town 0-1 Eastleigh: It wasn't good enough, say Town duo

The Shaymen managed just one shot on target during the match, and extended their winless league run to 10 games.

It’s now six draws and four defeats in the National League since Town’s last win against Gateshead on August 27.

“I’m frustrated for myself and the team because other than the little scramble they had in the first-half, there wasn’t too much more for Sam (Johnson) to do really, bar the goal,” said Clarke.

“We’ve got to really be finishing the chances we’re creating because at the moment we’re not creating loads, but the chances we are finding, we need to be doing better with.

“It was always going to be a tough game, they’re doing pretty well in the league.

“But at home we need to be a lot more confident, be on the front foot.

“There were spells in the first-half, but certainly the second-half was nowhere near good enough, and we’ve got to look at that and quickly start putting things right because we don’t want to be having one of those seasons.”

Staunton felt Town didn’t build on a decent first-half display, and was left bitterly disappointed.

“I thought first-half we were in the game, we had some nice phases of play where we passed the ball around nicely,” he said.

“Second-half we sat too deep, invited pressure and, at the moment, we don’t seem to be taking chances.

“We’re losing by the odd goal and we just need to be more clinical in both boxes.

“Second-half we just didn’t come out of the changing room. I couldn’t put my finger on why.

“The fans deserve better than that, the club deserves better than that.

“We’ve got to go away and look at ourselves in the mirror at the end of the day, and think ‘how did we put that performance on?’

“That’s disappointing, don’t get me wrong, people aren’t sitting in the changing room smiling. There’s no-one in there laughing about it.

“We understand we haven’t had a win for a while now, and we’ve got to turn things around.”

When asked if confidence had been affected by their recent form, with one win, seven draws and four defeats in their last 12, Clarke said: “Yeah, I don’t want to just say the front lads, but certainly with those types of players, not just in our team, but in any team, they need the confidence and they need to be hitting the target and the back of the net, and at this moment, they’re not doing that.

“They’re working their socks off to try and put that right, but it’s just not happening.

“I’m sure the work on the training ground and the work they’re trying to do on match days, hopefully that will come right for them.”

Clarke stressed the importance of hard work to get The Shaymen out of their poor run.

“We’ve got to keep working hard,” he said. “I’ve been in these situations before and hard work gets you out of trouble.

“Everyone needs to be working their socks off and giving everything for the team, whether that’s front, midfield or at the back.

“We’re a team and there’s only us that can get us out of it.”

Clarke admits it won’t get any easier for Town on Tuesday when they travel to Solihull, who are fourth in the table having won six of their last seven league games.

He added: “That’s what this league’s about isn’t it. It’s a tough league.

“But we’ve got to look at where we can do better and go into Tuesday’s game looking forward to it.”