"It's a very bitter blow," says Millington after Town's 4-2 FA Cup defeat at Oldham Athletic

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Chris Millington admitted it was a very bitter blow to crash out of the FA Cup after Town's 4-2 defeat to Oldham in the fourth qualifying round.

Halifax were 4-1 down at half-time after a dreadful first-half in which they conceded twice to former loanee Mike Fondop - one from an error by captain Sam Johnson - as well as a goal from Josh Lundstram and a Scott High own goal.

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"I'm just disappointed to go out of the Cup, that's the immediate thought," Millington told the Courier.

"There are two things we've got to say - one, we set-up to stop their threat in wide areas, especially Kitching and Ogle, and we did that, but what that did is it left us more open in the middle and we didn't compete well enough when they played through us.

Chris MillingtonChris Millington
Chris Millington

"They've been the better team in the first-half, and Oldham have got that in them, they've got that in their squad where they can have a blistering 25 minutes and hurt teams.

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"If we endure that and we deal with it, then we make a game of it, but unfortunately the four or five occasions when they went into our box, they looked like they were going to score."

Town have now conceded nine goals in their last four games, and let in four in one half for the first time since April 2021.

"Let's look at their goals, they've scored one where it was a mistake from Sam, very unlike him, they've got an own goal off us," Millington said.

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"Two of the goals are very uncharacyeristic and on another day, don't happen. I don't remember the last time Sam made a mistake like that and I can't remember the last time we conceded an own goal, so it certainly isn't something we do regularly.

"But if you go in having conceded four in the first 45 at Boundary Park, you're going to leave yourselves a massive uphill struggle."

There were some boos at half time and full time from the travelling Halifax fans.

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"Obviously we're disappointed and we're really gutted to go out of the Cup, especially losing 4-2 at a local rival," siad Millington.

"It's certainly not what we wanted to do, it certainly isn't what we set out to do but unfortunately, we have ourselves too much to do second-half.

"But I thought, other than what souded like one or two with a really negative response when we went over at the end, we wanted to stay with the fans for a period of time to show them our appreciation and in actual fact, the vast majority of the fans reciprocated and were absolutely fantastic.

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"We never set out to disappoint our fans, but clearly football does that.

"No team constantly has 100 per cent happy fans - we're another team who will disappoint occasionally and we[ve disappointed in the first-half today."

When asked what he had said to his players after the game, the Town boss said: "That'll stay in the dressing room, that's for us to sort out.

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"Tactically, we nullified the threats we wanted to nullify, but what that did is it left us open and vulnerable down the centre of the pitch.

"It's a big learning curve for us.

"What the players did is they responded really well, they could have crumbled, they're a young group and they could have gone right under in such an environment, being so far behind at half-time.

"But they stood up and played like men second-half."

The result means Town's long wait for a good run in the FA Cup goes on.

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"Yeah, really disappointing and it does feel like a bitter blow because we felt this was a tie we could win," Millington said.

"And we're ambitious, we want to do well, we're a group of players and staff who fight for everything.

"We hate conceding one goal let alone four in 45 minutes, so it's a very bitter blow."

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