"I think we deserved to win it" says Millington after Halifax are held at home by Southend

Halifax are still without a win or a goal, but produced a strong second-half display after Southend edged the opening half and had a penalty saved by Town keeper Sam Johnson.

"I think we deserved to win it, I think on the balance of play," Millington said.

"First-half was fairly even, obviously they got the penalty and that's a big opportunity for them, but Sam Johnson's done very well to keep it out, it's a very good save.

"But again, we've been so dominant in the second-half that it should have resulted in a win."

When asked what he said to his players at half-time to prompt an improved second-half performance, Millington said: "It was just around us being better in every area of our play really, bring braver both in and out of possession.

"We certainly saw a response second-half. We want the team to be exciting, we want them to be brave, we want them to be courageous and if we get beat, then we want them to go down fighting.

"I think you saw a team that was much more like the team we want to be in the second-half."

On the award of Southend's penalty, the Town boss said: "It didn't look like it to me, but I'm going to try my best not to point fingers and blame referees, I know they have a difficult job.

"The biggest frustration is inconsistency and I think we witnessed some inconsistency, but they're human and they've got a very difficult job so we'll forgive them."

Millington is confident the team's first goal of the season won't be far off arriving.

"It'd certainly be a concern if we weren't creating chances, but we're creating some fantastic chances," said the Town boss, who confirmed Milli Alli was taken off for tactical reasons at half-time.

"We just need one to go in off someone's backside to get us going.

"You look at the sequence of results, we've had a 2-0 defeat, a 1-0 defeat, a 0-0 and it looks like if we score on Saturday and we do our work out of possession, you'd hope that's enough to get us the three points."

Millington says his side haven't got the points their performances have deserved so far this season.

He added: "It's performances really, I know it's a results business and we've got to win games but I think the performances are possibly ahead of where we'd expect to be at this stage given the number of new players we've got.

"That matchday squad must've had about 65 per cent or 70 per cent of it being newly acquired players so the fact we're playing with such cohesion and such slickness in possession and a willingness to work for each other out of possession already is fantastic.

"I believe Torquay and Southend, we could and should have got the result those performances deserved."

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