"It was like I'd gone ten rounds with Tyson, it was brutal" - Chris Millington on Town's 2024, pushing for promotion and the year ahead

The past year has served as a reminder, as if one were needed, of FC Halifax Town's place in the football food chain.

The Shaymen continue to swim against the tide in competing for promotion, despite hindrances of a scarcity of resources or playing budget, and a comparitively small backroom staff.

And 2024, like a record stuck on repeat, has again seen their top talent lured away by Football League clubs and dent Halifax's chances of getting there themselves, with Milli Alli, Jamie Stott and Kane Thompson-Sommers the latest Town players to be lifted off the production line.

It's a challenge that Chris Millington is now all too familiar with.

"When we do have tough spells and poor performances, what you hope people will remember is that it's not easy," he said.

"We're in the bottom handful of clubs in the league in terms of our spending power, we're also probably in the bottom handful of clubs in terms of our attendances.

"We rent a stadium on matchday. Of course it's our spiritual home but it doesn't belong to the club.

"The vast majority of clubs own their own stadium or have long leases on them, and they also have much better budgets, better resources and most of them don't lose the strongest 50 per cent of their squad every season, which we do.

"That's the nature of the club, but it's part of the reason I love it because it is a challenge, it is difficult, but the thing that has to be remembered, which is credit to the chairman, the staff and the players we recruit - we're consistently in the top-half of the table and pushing for a play-off place.

"And within that, we believe we should be pushing for promotion.

"But it's important the context is there and people remember the challenges we're up against.

"There's an awful lot of teams in this division who would be very envious of the consistency of our league position and performances.

"There's much bigger clubs with much bigger budgets who lose two or three of their better players and can't cope with that.

"Yet we cope with it more or less every transfer window because we lost our best player and top goalscorer last January and it actually led to us becoming better, not worse."

Millington says he reflects mostly positively on the past year at the club.

"The thing we've always got to do is give some context to how we feel about things and what we deem as success," he said.

"The year started with us coming off the back off what was probably, in my opinion, the most well-rounded performance of the season at Altrincham on Boxing Day.

"That was the last game Milli Alli played for us, who was our top goalscorer at the time, and our best player.

"Suddenly he comes out with an injury and within weeks, he's left the club.

"So January was always going to be challenging when you lose your best player and at the time, we were looking at evolving the shape and the style of the team into something more possession based that would carry more of a threat.

"So it was always going to be a bit of a mid-season transition, but there were a couple of games that weren't received well by the fans.

"There were moans and groans of discontent, which we know we're always only a couple of games away from at this club.

"But as a staff, we knew that off the back of playing Solihull, where we lost to a couple of innocuous, strange goals and it was a bit of a nothing perfomance by both teams, but there were signs that we could see that the evolution was coming together and the change of style was starting to happen.

"So as much as we weren't pleased the with performance or the result, we were confident we were moving in the right direction and I think, after that, we put a decent run together."

If challenging doesn't exactly do January justice - with with two defeats and two draws, followed by two more defeats to start off February - then decent also doesn't adequately describe how good a run came next, with seven wins from the next eight.

"It's funny because every season, we lose our best players and I remember, at the end of last season, people were sending me comments from people supposedly in the know who were tipping us for relegation," Millington said.

"Which they do every season, because no team can go losing a Jamie Stott, a Luke Summerfield, a Tylor Golden, a Rob Harker, a Kane Thompson-Summers, a Jack Hunter - what team can sustain those losses and go again?

"Well, we can. We're well practised in it and who is to say it's not going to happen again this window?

"There's a strong possibility offers will come in and the club will have to sell to make ends meet.

"But we're always confident. We're coaches, we're grounded in the coaching process and we know that if we've got players with ability and good attitudes, then sooner or later we'll be able to get performances out of them.

"So we knew that run was coming, and we were really pleased when it did."

That collection of 21 points from a possile 24 meant that Town could afford a mixed end to the season of two wins, three draws and two defeats and still make the play-offs.

But that's where the story ended.

"I've never experienced a feeling like it. I was so drained, it was like I'd gone ten rounds with Tyson!" Millington said. "It was brutal.

"The run up to it, having four games in eight days, three of which were meant to be home games but two were played at Accrington and one at Chesterfield.

"The emotional rollercoaster and the physical rollercoaster for staff and players, it was a really tough week, culminating in a tough game against Oldham at Chesterfield

"It was like a mid-winter's game, the conditions were awful, and then the long trip the following morning all the way down to Eastleigh.

"To add insult to injury, the final day kick-off was at midday so we didn't even have until three o'clock to prepare, we were literally arriving in Eastleigh, going to bed, then getting up and playing the game.

"So it was absolutely relentless, but the sense around the group was that we'd overcome our adversity.

"I'm a great believer that nothing good comes without some sacrifice and I felt we'd made our sacrifices and we'd come through that adversity that week.

"We played well against Barnet and been on the wrong end of a 2-0 defeat because of two really soft goals, we'd played really well against Ebbsfleet and not managed to put them to bed, drawn 0-0.

"Then we put in a really battling performance to get the draw with Oldham and keep ourselves in pole position, and then a really good performance at Eastleigh to secure the play-off place.

"And I felt, going into Solihull, we were in a really good place.

"Performance wise, we were playing well, we'd come through a really tough week and we were starting to ride the crest of a wave.

"That first-half, we looked leggy. You're looking across the pitch at some of the players who are really dynamic and fantastic at intercepting opposition passes, and they just didn't have that dynamism or that acceleration, and we were getting picked off.

"Solihull played well as well, I've got add, that first-half was probably the best they played all season, they were shifting the ball really effectively.

"It was a mixture of them playing very well and us just looking half-a-yard slower, our reactions were that bit slower.

"But what's got to be mentioned is the resilience of this club and these players because we came out second-half and but for the width of the crossbar, it would've been 3-3 and we'd have gone into the final stages and possibly extra-time in a really solid position to try and win the game because we were the better team second-half and creating more chances.

"It's credit to the lads that they came out second-half and weren't packing in at 3-0 down and giving up, thinking 'well, we've had a decent season and made the play-offs', they wanted more and really went for it, but just didn't quite have enough to get over the line.

"But the feeling was heartbreaking because I hadn't considered the possibility that it would end there.

"After the Eastleigh game, I thought 'we're in a great place now and with a little bit of rest we're going to be strong enough to go and beat Solihull' so I did anticipate we were going to do that.

"Heartbreaking that we didn't but again, we forget the chaos around who we played.

"One minute you're playing one team, the next minute Gateshead have pulled out and that meant we had to play someone else.

"It was chaotic until the end but it was heartbreaking.

"And then you look round the changing room at the end and you know some players are going to leave and that's the last time you're going to work with them, the last time they're going to wear the Town shirt, so you've got all those emotions mixed in.

"It was a tough day, really gutting, but also filled with pride for the way the lads approached it and how well they acquitted themselves over the course of the season."

At the midway point of this season, Town are once again in the mix for a play-off spot.

When asked if he feels the club is in a better position than this time last year, Millington said: "To a degree. I think we're similar.

"This time last year we had a good young group who were acquitting themselves well and working really hard.

"They got on incredibly well behind-the-scenes so there was a good team bond.

"And I'd say that's the same now.

"As a squad, we're maybe stronger technically but we're lacking in terms of experience in comparison.

"We do lack a bit of experience when it comes to managing games but one of the things we do really well is give players that opportunity to develop and learn from their experiences.

"We've got Adam Adetoro improving month on month, Jack Jenkins is the same, Zak Emmerson's starting to show what he's about and he's a fast learner so he'll pick it up quickly.

"And there's any number of other players I could mention who are developing.

"We've raised an incredible amount of money over the last few seasons from player sales and we'll be tested again - I wouldn't be surprised if offers come in in January and most definitely there'll be players who attract attention over the summer.

"We've got to accept that's our lot at the moment and I guess its a real positive for the club that we are the catalyst for so many players going into the Football League and beginning what I believe will be some very impressive careers."

For Millington, after another year managing both ends of the production line, the year to come should be no different.

"I think the only concern for me is that each year, there's another big spender or spenders from the levels below," he said.

"And that's who we're competing with really when we go into negotiations with players.

"It's rare that we're up against a Forest Green, a Barnet or an Oldham. We're just not competing in those circles.

"It's more often that we're up against a National League North club.

"There are players where, when they came to us, their decision was 'do I go to National League North for more money or Halifax for less, but where I can have that platform and hopefully kick on'.

"There's a number of players like that in our current squad, who will benefit from having played for us as a professional club, where they've been given the support and time to develop, and I believe there's a number who'll end up in League One or League Two as a minimum."

As more players reach the end of the line at Town, it's up to Millington to ensure there are others ready to take their place.

"We've got a very well-versed staff in identifying talent: that's Gareth McClelland, as well as myself and Coops, we play our part in the talent ID," Millington said.

"Then we work incredibly hard to ersuade that talent to come to Halifax Town and in many cases, they'll take a hit on the money they can earn to come to us.

"So it takes some really strong negotiation to be able to bring players to play for less money they can play for, even in the division below, and in some cases we've lost out on players because of the financial might of some clubs in the NPL.

"So we have to work really hard to show them there's a pathway and then we have to come good on that.

"When young players make mistakes, have poor games or poor spells of form, we have to be willing to persevere through that.

"We can't just bomb them off and bring in new players, we have to help them get through that because we've promised them they'll have a platform to develop and we'll support and help them with that so they can help the club get better first and foremost but then have a foundation to build a career from.

"In many cases, they've made a sacrifice to come to us, whether that's geographically or accepting they might not earn the money they feel they deserve but they'll get the coaching and the support to develop.

"That's what we try and do, that in every case we come good on the promises we make to players.

"It won't work in every single case because it's a very difficult environment to keep developing in, but I think the vast majority of players that come to us do leave better and go on to bigger clubs and better contracts."

Other than trying to keep hold of his best players, Millington's main focus for the year ahead is to be as flexible and adjustable as possible to the demands of National League football.

"We've got to continue to try and have a more attractive style but also what we've got to do is be adaptable," he said.

"I think season, over and above previous seasons, we've shown we have the ability to go to Forest Green, set up a really solid game plan focused around counter-attacking, growing into the game and dominating the game later on.

"But then we've had other games like against Rochdale and York where we've dominated possession - when we played at Rochdale, no team had greater possession stats except for us, which shows we're able to adapt and play different styles to deal with different opponents.

"That's something that will stand us in good stead and is probably underrated in the modern game.

"People talk about the former Southampton manager or the Tottenham manager, who won't change their style regardless.

"We're different, we think you've got to be flexible and you've got to be adaptable, otherwise you run the risk of not being able to turn games into points.

"So that's what I want us to be really is a team who, no matter what we come up against, or who we play against, we've got the ability to implement a game plan that can result in us getting a positive result."