"The best team won," says Millington after another away defeat for Shaymen

Asa Hall's second-half goal sealed a huge win for Torquay and another away day to forget for The Shaymen.

"The best team won," said Millington. "It pains me to say it because they've not done anything we weren't expecting, they've not thrown anything at us we didn't believe we could contend with.

"But it's another away performance that sees us coming away losing by the odd goal, and it's a painful theme so far this season that we've got to right."

Asked how his team's miserable away form this season can be put right, Millington said: "Personnel, one. Other lads have got to have an opportunity to prove they're hungry and they want to stake a claim for a starting position in the team, so we need to see more hunger and desire out of the team for a start, that's got to happen.

"And then secondly, we've got to maybe look at how we approach games and how we play.

"I think the most important thing is personnel and hunger and desire, but there might be an argument for us playing the percentages a bit more and approaching games slightly differently, although I don't think that was the issue today, but it might be the way we go when we go away from home."

On whether Torquay showed more hunger for the win than Halifax, Millington said: "The stats would suggest that. We don't know what their running stats were but I'd bet they've run further than us, they've certainly had more first contacts, they've landed on more seconds.

"Those things usually suggest a team wants it more.

"They're certainly no fitter than us, they're certainly not better footballers.

"But the fact they're doing those things would suggest they wanted it more than our boys did."

The Town boss said the result was up there with the most disappointing of the season.

"I think so. It's a trend we thought we'd eradicated," he said.

"The fact we come up against teams we feel we're better than and we simply don't show that during the 90 minutes, it's no good just believing it and thinking it and doing all the analysis and looking at them and seeing how we can hurt them and then not actually going out and doing it.

"We've got to ask more of the lads, they've got to give us more."

The game was played in horrendous conditions and on a very muddy Plainmoor surface.

"If there's an excuse to throw out there it would be that the conditions probably suited Torquay's style more than ours," Millington said.

"But the pitch held up reasonably well and there's no reason why we couldn't have used the ball better when we got the opposition dropped into their half.

"The conditions certainly played a part in the quality of the football but not in the result."

Millington said he could take no positives from the day, which was another example of an away game that Town leave with nothing.

The Town boss accepts the trend could ultimately cost them a chance of a play-off place.

"Absolutely, we can't start putting little runs together and then thinking we've cracked it and dropping back into second gear and having runs like this recent run, the Altrincham away game and this away game where we've underperformed," he said.

"It will cost us. The season's long and it's hard and there's an awful lot of people at the football club working hard to provide everything we possibly can within our means to give the lads the information and the best possible platform to go and win games.

"We've got to rely on them to then take that baton and run with it. Today they failed to do that for us."

Millington also said another blank away from home increases his desire to strengthen his squad.

"Yeah definitely. Something like this definitely highlights the need to freshen it up," he said.

"We've got to acknowledge the fact that some of our very important players were missing today - Luke Summerfield, Kian Spence, Matty Warburton.

"All important players for us and not even on the bench.

"Jamie Stott as well, who was pretty much an ever-present.

"There's not many teams in the National League who'd cope without them, so they are a loss.

"But that's not to say we shouldn't have won, I believe the team we put out was good enough to win it and I'm disappointed we didn't."

Millington said the defeat also raises questions around some members of his squad.

"Maybe one of my strengths, but also maybe a weakness at times, is that I'm always thinking and planning further down the line," he said.

"I'm keen to make sure we secure the future of the club by making sure we've got players contracted and tied down to the club for a period of time that means we don't have to face another summer like last summer, certainly not while I'm here.

"But today dies raise questions and it makes you wonder whether some lads are going to be able to hit those levels of consistency to be regular starters or do they better suit being a squad player, somebody you can rely on to do a job for a few games and then pull out of the team.

"But we certainly won't make those decisions rashly."

On Summerfield's absence, Millington said: "He's very poorly unfortunately, he's going to be a little while and he'll require a little while to overcome his illness."

On Warburton, Millington said: "Tight calf, it's not dissimilar to the situation he had at the beginning of the season but we just hope it doesn't take as long to recover."

And on Spence, Millington said: "Still got a bit of a niggle in the groin, so he's anxious it doesn't develop into anything more serious."

Jack Hunter also missed the game.

"Ill. Jack would certainly have been in and around the starting 11 but just prior to the match prep yesterday he was too ill to take part so didn't travel," said Millington.

When asked if Hunter's illness was the same as Summerfield's, Millington said: "We're not sure, it's a similar set of symptoms but not identical."

Sam Minihan and Tom Clarke were also left out of the squad.

"We thought with the amount of illness going around, it would be prudent to bring Tom Scott because it's such a long trip that if Sam Johnson had gone down ill, we'd have been stuck without a keeper," said the Town boss.

"Then the other lads just gave us attacking options because we felt, if anything, we'd need attacking options over defensive options."

On whether there had been any progress with attempts to add to his squad, Millington said: "We hope we'll make progress on a couple this week.

"We've got a couple of triallists we'll be looking at but we've also got some specific targets we'll be following up this week,

"If we could get two bodies in that'd be fantastic because that'd give us an opportunity to just freshen things up and strengthen us in some areas where we're a bit weaker at the moment."

And on any possible departures, the Town boss said: "There's lads who need minutes. Sam Minihan and Smart are desperate for minutes so as an when we get any bodies in, we'll certainly look to see if we can help them get minutes elsewhere that they're not getting here at the minute."