"I do believe we have got more goals within the squad," says Millington on goal-shy Shaymen

Halifax are the joint-lowest scorers in the National League, with 17 from their first 20 games, and drew a blank last Saturday in a frustrating 1-0 defeat at Yeovil.

Town have only scored more than once four times in the league this season, and are yet to score than twice in a league match.

"We want to be scoring more," Millington said.

"When we reviewed the Yeovil game back, there's a number of clear-cut chances in the first-half that we should have scored, and had we done, would have changed the complexion of the game drastically.

"Even in the second-half we had a good number of penalty box entries that should have resulted in more.

"We had shots that should have resulted in more, so our focus has clearly got to be around being more clinical.

"If we weren't creating the chances then we'd have a bigger problem to fix.

"The current situation is we're creating the chances but not putting them away.

"We know that our defence is resilient now and there's a solidity to us as a team, but we can't look to be keeping clean sheets every week and nicking games 1-0, we've got to be starting to put two and three goals past teams and show what a good, all-round team we can be."

Millington doesn't feel a lack of confidence among his forward players is part of the problem.

"I don't look at any of our players and see a lack of confidence," he said.

"I think we've got to take a little bit more care, we've got to be aware of the importance of each chance because these chances aren't infinite, you get a limited number of chances in a game and we've got to see the importance and the value of taking as many of those chances as we possibly can.

"If we don't then clearly we put ourselves at risk of ending up on the back end of a 1-0 defeat like we did at Yeovil that we didn't deserve, when you consider the wider picture.

"I think there's a recognition around the importance of each chance that presents itself and making sure that we do everything that we possibly can to finish those off rather than pass off a missed opportunity and not worry about it because we expect to have another one in the next few minutes, because it's not always like that."

When asked if he felt the lack of goals can be addressed by his current squad or needs to be solved by new signings, the Town boss said: "We definitely need to score more goals.

"I do believe we have got more goals within the squad, I believe we can get more out of Mani (Dierseruvwe), I believe we can get more out of Rob Harker, I believe other players can contribute.

"The advanced midfielders and number tens in the squad, Kian (Spence), Jamie Cooke, Matty Warburton's yet to get a good run of games, I believe they can all score goals.

"I believe off set-pieces, our centre-halves have got to weigh in with more. I know Jesse Debrah's weighed in with a couple of important goals this season, but others need to be offering more of a goal threat when they go up for set-pieces.

"So there's a number of players who I think can make more effort to contribute when they get into those positions in the final third.

"However, I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility of bringing somebody in, and indeed I would welcome somebody we believe was going to contribute and score goals on a regular basis.

"Clearly, those players aren't easy to find. We can gamble on an under 21 and see if he'll make the grade, we can gamble on a player who may well be doing well at a lower level and see if they can cut it at this level.

"But to go out and get a proven goalscorer at this level or from the level above clearly takes a massive investment, which not many clubs in this division can make.

"Those who can't have to be working harder and smarter to try and score goals."

Millington says there is room in the playing budget for additions to his squad, but that it's far easier said than done identifying the right players to sign.

"I don't find the budget restrictive in any way, shape or form," he said.

"Clearly we can't just go out and sign a guaranteed 20-goal a season striker because, one, there aren't any available at the moment, and secondly, they may be out of our price bracket.

"We work hard to try and identify the right people, to try and bring in people who we believe we can work with and get to the level, or make sure we can put in positions to score the goals.

"The chairman is very supportive in that sense and wants to help evolve the squad as and when the right people become available, and that dialogue is ongoing, it never stops.

"But also what we've got to do is recognise that we've got some really exciting prospects who've come into the squad this season, Jamie Cooke's broken in, Angelo Capello's come in and been a breath of fresh air, Kian Spence is now playing 90 minutes on a regular basis.

"We've got a good number of young players who we can work with and develop, and hopefully get some goals out of as well.

"So there's a number of ways we can attack it and we're trying to attack it on every front as best as we possibly can."

On whether any negotiations over new signings were close to being completed, Millington said: "There's always conversations going on.

"I'd be lying if I said there was anything particularly advanced at this stage."

In the meantime, Millington is focusing on trying to solve the issue in-house.

"I want the lads who are signed to Halifax Town to be the players who get us into the position in the league we want to be in," he said.

"It's only a week or so ago that we didn't have any centre-hales available and were patching up the back line with an injured Jamie Stott and other players dropping into positions to do us a job.

"At that time we were looking at options outside the club to bring in and made the decision that the players in the club were of more value to us in that moment.

"I think that was proved to be the case with the results against Solihull and Bromley and then Boreham Wood, we were grateful we had the quality and the depth within the squad to deal with that crisis in that moment.

"And I'd say the same at this stage, we've got an awful lot of ability in the squad and it's very easy to look outside and go 'the answer's elsewhere', well, no, we want to make sure we do everything we can to find the answer within the squad first and foremost and try and bring the players on that we've got within the club and make them the very best they can be for Halifax Town.

"Of course we'll bring in players as and when we can do, if somebody comes in that's clearly better than the player we've got we'd be doing the club a disservice to not bring those in.

"But also what we've got to maintain is that we're a club that players come to and they get opportunity and they get better and we work with them to improve them.

"So we're certainly not going to change that approach."

Read more from the Town boss in Thursday’s Courier and later this week on our website.