"It's such a momentous occasion for the whole town" - Millington on reaching Wembley and preparations for the final

Town booked their place in the FA Trophy final thanks to Saturday's dramatic penalty shoot-out victory at Altrincham, and will face Gateshead at Wembley on May 21.

Halifax boss Millington says the match is something the whole of Halifax can look forward to.

"My primary concern is always for the players because they give such a lot on the whole for the club, so my first thought is for them and how pleased I am that they've achieved this and they've potentially got something to really take out of this season," he told the Courier.

"It's such a momentous occasion for the whole town to get behind.

"I'm acutely aware of the challenges that are out there for people at the moment with the cost-of-living crisis and some of the problems in society.

"So I think it's a really fantastic occasion to just put Halifax on a really positive footing and give it the attention it deserves for the town as a whole.

"It's great for the fans in general but there are certain people, we know who they are, who live, breathe, eat, sleep Halifax Town and they've been amazing, their support has been unconditional through a very trying time for the club and for them it's a real pleasure to be able to give them something back for all the unconditional support they've offered us this season."

Millington says the fact that Town are in the final probably won't fully sink in for him until the week running up to the match.

"The semi-final hadn't really sunk in until Thursday evening and being sat around the dinner table with the family, and the kids are just asking questions and all of a sudden the enormity of the semi-final started to sink in and what was possible," he said.

"On one level, we all know going into a semi-final that the rewards are a trip to Wembley and potentially an opportunity to write the club's name in history, but it doesn't always hit you immediately.

"And it was the Thursday evening that it really started to sink in, and as a result of that, the butterflies started and I think it'll probably be a similar thing for the final I'd imagine.

"We've got an awful lot of work to do between now and then with league games so there's plenty to occupy the mind and I'd imagine it will be that run-up to the final itself when the real enormity of it starts to sink in."

Before that, Millington is preaching pragmatism and professionalism from his squad.

"The atmosphere in the changing room after the game was phenomenal and just such a joy to see them get some reward for all of their hard work this season," he said.

"We've got a lot more hard work to do in the league and we've got an awful lot more to do to make sure we do everything we can to overcome Gateshead in the final, who are going to present a similar type of challenge, and maybe a greater one in some respects.

"So we've still not really achieved anything, we've got to keep our feet on the ground and remember that we've still got a big task in finishing the job off."

Millington says there will be no issues over players' contracts, with the FA Trophy final due to be played three weeks after the end of the league season.

"All contracts run until the end of the season," said the Town boss, "so for everybody who is involved beyond the end of the league season, their contracts will naturally tick over until the cup final."

And Millington also said Town will be able to still train at their base in Leeds during the three-week build-up.

"Yeah there's no problems there," he said, "we'll have full access to everything we need in terms of preparation."

The Town boss said he would like to arrange at least one friendly after the end of the season but before the Wembley final.

"It's a difficult time obviously because most teams will have ended their season," he said.

"There'll be a good number of teams involved in play-off games so there might be an opportunity there and there might be one or two other teams who we still have the opportunity to play.

"We've also got opportunities to play in-house games and one or two other possibilities.

"We will be looking to get at least one game in that three-week period and possibly two, to make sure the lads are fully prepared and match-fit."

And the Halifax manager doesn't believe The Shaymen's extended season will make it more difficult for them to sign players.

"No, we won't be behind anyone," he said.

"We've got a meeting on Wednesday to set in stone some targets we want to bring in at the end of the season.

"We want to be ahead of the curve on that and we'll be doing everything we can to have some agreements in place for next season in the next few weeks.

"We're luck to have Gareth McClelland as our head of recruitment, whose sole focus now is on making sure that we've got a real accurate list of targets who are realistic targets for us in terms of budget and geography and he will be working every available hour to make sure we're ahead of the curve on that.

"We don't want to be in the situation where we're bringing lads in part-way through pre-season or at the end of pre-season because we saw how challenging that was for us at the beginning of this season.

"We want to make sure the vast majority of the squad is with us at the beginning of pre-season."