"I still rate our chances highly of getting into the play-offs" says Millington ahead of home double-header

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Chris Millington says he rates Town's chances of a top seven finish highly ahead of a crucial home double-header for The Shaymen.

Millington's side, who are six points adrift of the play-offs in 15th place, are at home to ninth-placed Wealdstone on Saturday before hosting rock-bottom Scunthorpe live on BT Sport on Wednesday.

But Town must improve on their recent form, which has seen them take just one point from their last three matches, the latest of which was their disappointing 1-0 defeat at strugglers Torquay.

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"Still good I think," said Millington when asked how he rated Halifax's chances of finishing in the play-offs as things stand.

Chris Millington. Photo: Marcus BranstonChris Millington. Photo: Marcus Branston
Chris Millington. Photo: Marcus Branston

"The big problem we've had is we have everyone a head start by being bottom of the league 10 or 11 games in.

"We couldn't really get ourselves going early doors, so that's the hangover, that every time we don't win or perform below our standards, then people think we're having a terrible season.

"What we had was a terrible start to the season, and the reality is now we're a team who probably deserve to be higher than we are in the league but because of that start, we're clawing back places and clawing back points at every opportunity.

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"I still rate our chances highly of getting into the play-offs and we'll be working very hard to climb up the table."

Wealdstone are without a win in their last four away games, while Scunthorpe are yet to win away in the league this season.

"It's not a matter of significant importance, the gathering of points, as such, it's the performance that comes first," said Millington.

"But we're just desperate to get into a run of games again, it feels like the best part of eight weeks off, with the odd game here and there in the last few weeks and we're just desperate to get back into that run of games where you're playing on a weekly basis and playing regular football, getting into the swing of things.

"That's the main thing, we want to get back into the habit.

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"I almost feel like we've had a winter break because of the scarcity of matches in what is usually a very busy period,"

Town have only won once in their last ten away league matches, but their home form is far stronger ahead of their back-to-back games at The Shay.

"Our home form is good at the moment, we've got to remember that we're seven unbeaten, with six of those being wins," Millington said.

"We're playing well, for the most part, at home, which requires a huge amount of effort to continue and build on.

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"There may be games where we don't perform to the high standards we've recently done at home, but we've got to make sure that we do everything we can to try and secure the results.

"Away from home, clearly needs improvement, because there have been too many games we've lost by the odd goal that, for away performances, we probably shouldn't have lost, we should have at least come away with something and in some cases, disappointed we didn't come away with all three points.

"It's no good always being disappointed with what we come away with when we're away from home.

"So we've definitely got to improve those results away from home and that will be crucial for us to maintain a strong play-off push.

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"The silly thing is we've actually performed better and generally got better results against the teams who are fighting at the top end of the table.

"The result at home to Notts County was terrible, but the first 40, 42 minutes of that performance were pretty strong.

"Then you look at Chesterfield at home, Dagenham at home where we've really performed well, they're the types of performances we've got to cling on to."

Millington added: "The important thing for the players now, going into the second-half of the season, is for us to start to see some character come out of the group, some leaders really step forward.

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"We've got a good number of young players who have established themselves as regular first-team starters who have been with us for a season or more.

"And we've got some significant players who've come into the club this season and out of that mix, we've got to see who are those who will step up and really drive the team forward.

"That's maybe something the players can look at to try and bring into the second-half of the season, is who out of the group is really going to step up and help carry us forward."

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