"I thought we deserved to win it," says Millington after Solihull defeat

Halifax were defeated thanks to Jordan Tunnicliffe’s first-half goal, and despite dominating the second-half, couldn’t produce an equaliser.

"I thought we deserved to win it,” Millington said. “I thought we gave ourselves a mountain to climb by conceding another really poor goal, definitely the worst one we've conceded this season.

"We've been culpable in pretty much every goal we've conceded so far this season, so the lads have got to man up and deal with things in our box better.

"Solihull have had to do nothing to win the game, they've not dominated possession, they've not shifted us about, they've not dropped us low, they've not peppered the goal.

"And yet they've come away with a 1-0 win. It's all on us."

On Solihull’s goal, Millington said: "Adam's got blocked, I'd have to see it again to see whether I can say firmly or not whether it's a foul, but I know he was definitely blocked off, which has allowed them to win the first contact.

"But then it's scrambled in somehow from within our six yard box, and that can't happen.

"We'e got to deal with that much better. On first viewing, it seemed like a really poorly dealt with second phase."

Town got better as the game went on, following up a first-half of few chances with a more productive second 45, but Millington was happy with what he saw from both halves.

"I thought first-half we were quite comfortable, I think we've had probably the lion's share of possession, we've moved the ball through the thirds,” he said.

"I think if we go in 0-0 and we end up winning the game 1-0, 2-0, then everybody's really pleased with the first-half.

"We were quite comfortable - it's the goal. We can have an emotional reaction to the goal and all throw our hands up and go 'we were crap'.

"We weren't, we were quite comfortable, we controlled possession.

"We certainly had the lion's share of it, and then obviously the second-half, we really asserted ourselves.

"I thought we were the better team in both halves."

When asked what his side was missing at the moment, after one win in their first five games, the Town manager said: "We've had a challenging start to the season in terms of opposition, an even more challenging start to the season in terms of personnel that's missing.

"We've changed shape to the shape we played pretty much all the way through pre-season, we've got personnel back who help us do the things we weren't doing very well in the earlier part of the season, which we knew was going to be challenging because we didn't have enough ball players in the team.

"We had that and, hey presto, we started to look like the team we want to be.

"But to expect Flo Hoti to come in after a long-term injury, start a game, play 90 minutes and win it for us is unrealistic.

"Owen Bray hasn't played an awful lot of senior football, and certainly isn't up to his sharpness, yet has come in and had a really positive impact, but to expect him to be the difference is unrealistic and unfair.

"And then you look at the profile of the two teams - we're a really, really young starting 11, a really, really young squad.

"And they're a really experienced squad with god knows how many Football League appearances amongst them, and we were the better team.

"It's another opportunity for the lads to learn, you make those mistakes and give teams a head start, you're not always going to pull it back and get something out of the game.

"So we've got to make sure we stop giving teams an easy goal."

Town have now conceded first in each of their last three games.

"Yeah, and conceded soft goals,” said Millington.

"It's a trend and that's what we've got to focus the majority of our attention on because if we don't concede that goal, we at least draw the game and there's a school of thought that suggests we give ourselves much more of an opportunity to score because they'll sill be having a go and still be coming out, which we didn't allow them to by the way we played."

One positive for The Shaymen was injured players Kane Thompson-Sommers, Jo Cummings, Max Wright, Harvey Sutcliffe and Ryan Galvin all trained with the team before the game.

"There's a good number of bodies on the way back,” Millington said.

"I thought Angelo Cappello was fantastic, he showed what he can do playing out of position, but who knows, maybe that's his best position.

"Adam Adetoro was outstanding when we had the ball and we had controlled possession, at stepping in and hurting them.

"Owen Bray and Flo Hoti really had a positive impact at keeping us on the ball and dropping them low and then penetrating to get in their box.

"Jamie Cooke's played three positions and has had an impact in all three.

"He's very low maintenance is Cookie, you give him a job, he goes and he does it.

"It's really positive we've got players coming back, but if we perform like that, more often than not we're going to win games and the players coming back are going to have to really fight to gt themselves back in the team."