"I feel let down and I feel like we've let the fans down," says Millington after Halifax slump to defeat at home to Southend

The Shaymen should have taken the lead through Billy Waters before conceding once in each half in a dreadful display.

"I feel let down and I feel like we've let the fans down," Millington said.

"It was a tepid, weak display reminiscent of a few weeks ago.

"We've been resolute, hard working, well organised in the last three games.

"There was a hint of it yesterday in training, ut I put that down to the fact that the lads had a long journey back on Wednesday night, arrived home in the earlyt hours Thursday morning, and so forgave them a little lack of tempo in training.

"But that's tipped over into today and then when we've needed to get going we've just not been able to."

Millington said what he had told the players after the game would stay in the changing room but conceded The Shaymen had been way off the pace.

"Southend are a good team, they're a well managed team, well coached, they've suffered from the loss of some very, very significant players in Cardwell and Kensdale, and they're still finding their feet a bit," said the Halifax boss.

"They're a good side so we give them credit but we've not given them a match today.

"We've missed easy chances, we've conceded possession in a weak manner and we just had way too many players not at the races."

Waters squandered a huge chance with the game at 0-0 but Millington felt it would have been an undeserved lead had it gone in.

"I think Southend were 1-0 better than us at half-time anyway," he said.

"It was a big miss and we know in this league, and especially when teams are playing Halifax Town, if we go 1-0 up then life becomes very difficult for the opposition.

"So of course it's a big moment but the reality is we weren't value for that scoreline at that point anyway.

"We've got to take those chances but that's not why we didn't win the game."

Town again conceded some avoidable goals, losing the ball in midfield for Southend's first before the visitors scored from a second-half corner.

"We've conceded possession in the middle of the pitch and they've countered too easily through the middle of us and then a set-piece again, after being so well organised and good on them since the York game," Millington said.

"Again a real moment of weakness."

The Shaymen still had half-an-hour after Southend's second goal to get back into the game, but offered nothing going forward.

"We were rubbish," admitted Millington. "You know when a team starts as poorly as we did, then it makes it very difficult to get yourselves going when you need to.

"So it's a huge frustration."

The Town boss confirmed that none of his substitutions were due to injuries.

"No, just all because we needed to try and create a spark to try and light something amongst the rest of the players," he said.

"We ended up with two defenders on the pitch to try and create some attacking opportunities and some attacking flair but a mixture of sloppiness and a lack of quality cost us."

When asked whether the result and the performance had undone the momentum Town had built in recent games, Millington said: "The work that's been done, we've profited from it and gained from it, so that's still of value, but we've got to do it again now because that was a really poor performance."