"No excuses at all, it just wasn't good enough," says McGrath after Halifax lose at Worthing

The Shaymen did level thanks to Will Hugill after Joe Cook's early opener, but Jordan Young's effort proved to be decisive before half-time, with Halifax never really getting out of second gear all afternoon on the south coast.

"They're a good side, but we're a good side and today was a great opportunity for us to go toe-to-toe with a good side," McGrath said.

"They've got a certain style how they play and they worked theirs better than we worked ours.

"When you don't start the game right, the first five minutes, we had players not doing what I want them to do, we never got out of our half for the first five minutes, and that was from our kick-off, which was crazy really.

"We concede from a corner, which is really sloppy.

"I thought we got to grips with it better second-half, but we didn't allow ourselves to stamp our authority on them, we allowed them to dictate play, especially first-half."

The Shaymen gave the ball away cheaply in their own half for what proved to be Worthing's winning goal.

"The second goal is criminal really," said McGrath, "we work to stretch teams. I've just seen it back and it goes back to Granty, it should go the other side to Max, we come back into bodies.

"Tayt makes a decision to flick the ball round the corner; they're young and they'll learn from it but you should know if you're 25 yards from your own goal you can't flick a ball round the corner because you're away from home with five minutes to go (until half-time).

"You look at how we started and ended the half, and both goals were avoidable."

When asked why The Shaymen started so slowly in the game, McGrath said: "We don't even give them the question mark over starting fast, we allow them to start fast by just kicking a ball short and Raheem then coming back towards Granty, and then we lose the ball and go back to Max and it gets blocked.

"We never clear our lines. It's stuff we've worked on and spoken about.

"You can say they're a young group, they're 22, 23, it's rubbish. It's players understanding the game of football, you're away from home, you've travelled a long way, you've worked hard all week and for it to be undone in the first five minutes.

"I don't think Worthing worked hard enough in the first five minutes certainly, but in the first 45 minutes of the game."

McGrath said he did feel his team were working their way into the game and that an equaliser might have been on the cards before Dylan Crowe's sending off.

"I felt it was coming until the sending off, but then ironically, I thought we we actually created more chances with ten men than we did with 11," McGrath said.

"Again, I can't put that down to anything other than knowing you're down to ten men and you know you've got to do the extra yard-and-a-half for your mate, but that should be a given 11 v 11.

"No excuses, no excuses at all, it just wasn't good enough.

"When you start any game and finish any half like that, then you're going to get found out."

On Crowe's dismissal, the Town manager said: "It's a really poor free-kick by Tommy, keeper comes and claims it and we should be organised better.

"It looked like he got across him, looked like he got his body there.

"I'll have to revisit it but if it was Conor Carty in on goal, I'd be very disappointed if it wasn't given."

Left-back Tristan Gill was taken off at half-time due to a head injury, McGrath confirmed.

"He clashed his head, and it looks like it may be a fractured cheekbone, which isn't great, especially with Deniche being away and we have Tristan in on loan," he said.

"With Dylan being sent-off, we're going to have to revisit those full-back areas."

And on the substitution of full-back Raheem Conte, McGrath said: "He obviously missed last week and he felt it, so we were being really precautionary with him because, we know with Tristan being out and Deniche away, we need to protect him.

"How thinly spread the squad is at the minute, bringing on young Theo Wainman, making his debut at 18. He worked hard and it was great for him, and he'll learn from that, he'll learn from the winger getting him hpinned and spinning him, and things like that.

"The future's bright when we're bringing on players like that but we probably need to go and recruit maybe one or two in those areas."

Zak Gilsenan was an unused substitute in the match.

"He was due to start but had a little bit of a niggle in training yesterday, ironically, towards the back end of the session," McGrath said.

"Again, on a Astro pitch, that was just purely precautionary, so we'll see how he is for Tuesday and if he's not ready, we've obviously got Tommy who we've just signed.

"Hopefully we start getting players back now."