"The clear difference was their ability to finish and our inability to finish," says Millington after National League Cup defeat to Middlesbrough under 21s

It's now back-to-back defeats in the competition for Halifax, who still haven't won a cup match since winning the FA Trophy last year.

"The clear difference was their ability to finish and our inability to finish," said the Halifax manager.

"It's not the first time I've said that this season.

"The half-time team talk is a case of reminding the lads that we see them do it day in, day out in training, under pressure in training.

"But then when they've got the pressure of the bright lights and the people in the stands, for some reason, their composure deserts them.

"And if their composure doesn't desert them, I'm not saying we'd have won it but I'm pretty certain we wouldn't have lost it."

When asked how Town's wastefulness in-front of goal might be addressed, Millington said: "As coaches, we keep putting them in the same positions over and over again in training, there's no magic solution.

"You keep providing them with opportunities to practice, we try and help them in terms of recognising their emotional control and their ability to maintain composure in those moments.

"But that's why strikers are so highly sought-after.

"We can get away with it in the National League because we're also a little bit more solid defensively in the National League.

"But it's either improve or we have to find people who are able to do it because it's a case of us doing many things that we set out to do well, but losing a game of football."

Millington felt Town fell short in both boxes in the game.

"The game plan worked, but we've also conceded four goals," he said.

"We've squandered good opportunities and out of what I believe are five shots on target, they've scored four.

"That should never be the case, we should be able to defend them better and the keeper should do more.

"It's not dissimilar to the York game where you're talking about being better in both boxes.

"We've got to forgive some mistakes. You've got young Frankie Sinfield in, it's a big occasion for him, a product of the Halifax Town academy.

"Maybe once or twice, he was a bit naive and got picked off a bit easily, but there are others who could have helped fix those problems."

Sinfield and Zak Emmerson both made their first competitive starts for The Shaymen.

"They looked like young footballers who are trying to set a foundation to build a cereer in the game," Millington said.

"No lack of effort or endeavour but maybe a bit of a lack of know-how, which will come with experience, which is what we're great at giving players.

"Making sure we get them the experience they need to learn the game at this level."

Town have no points from their opening two National League Cup games, with matches against Leeds and Sunderland to come.

"Looks like it yeah," said Millington when asked if The Shaymen were staring down the barrel of an early exit, "it's a mountain to climb for sure.

"But we'll take it a game at a time and we'll approach the Leeds game with the intent to win it, which we did against Middlesbrough.

"That was a strong team in terms of our squad and on another day, you might have found we'd done enough to win the game but clearly, our shortcomings in both boxes were what made the difference."