"The lads have got to step up," says Millington ahead of Saturday's home game with Boston United

The Shaymen were second best in their 3-1 loss at Southend United on Tuesday night, producing their second below-par performance in as many games after last weekend's 2-1 win at Tamworth.

And Millington wants his team to rise to the occasion on Saturday and get back to their old selves.

"We're familiar with setbacks and adversity, over my three years in charge here we've had plenty of it," he told the Courier.

"But we've always shown a steel and a resilience to be able to bounce back, so I expect nothing less now.

"But it's on the lads to show a bit of that.

"Southend looked like men and we looked like boys so the lads have got to step up and give a man's performance on Saturday."

Town have one of the best away records in the National League this season but have struggled to produce consistent form at home, where five of their next six matches take place.

"We go into every game trying to win it, home or away, so we'll do that again against Boston," Millington said.

"Hopefully one or two have got a point to prove after Tuesday night."

Millington says changes are likely, with Halifax in the midst of a packed run of games.

"There's a lot of players who underperformed on Tuesday night so it would be unfair to keep rolling out the same team after a poor performance at Tamworth, even though we got the result, and a similarly poor performance against Southend where we got what we deserved," he said.

"So I think it's fair to say that some players will need to come out and have a breather."

One of those to come in could be attacker Luca Thomas, who came off the bench to score at Southend.

"Definitely yeah," Millington said when asked if Thomas was pushing for a start.

"After a performance like that, up until 70, 75 minutes there's any number of the forward lads who came on who can feel they've done enough to justify being in consideration.

"We struggled to get up the pitch before that and didn't really carry and significant threat.

"The moments when we did get Southend low, there was a lack of quality in our deliveries.

"Luca, Zak and Tom all came on and had a positive impact."

Midfielder Florent Hoti could be in contention for the game too.

"I think so," Millington said, "it depends how he trains but he's there or thereabouts."

When asked if Town's performance at Southend made the need for new signings even more urgent, Millington said: "It makes me think we've got to add to it, but the prpoblem is you've got to add quality.

"There's no point in just adding numbers because it doesn't solve anything.

"What we've got to do is add players who we think can come in and impact the starting 11 immediately."

Boston are second from bottom in the National League, nine points from safety, and have won just four of their 27 league matches this season.

"They're signing players we can't afford," Millington said.

"If rumours I hear are correct, their budget is far greater than ours.

"So we know our place in that respect but we also believe we're good enough to beat anyone in the division, and league position would suggest we should be able to beat Boston, so we'll go out with that mindset.

"We'll approach Boston the way we approach every game, we'll go in with a plan we think we can win the game with.

"We'll go in with a starting 11 we think is capable of winning the game.

"We did that on Tuesday night, we didn't go there to lose 3-1, we went there to win the game.

"But we had too many who just weren't at the races."

The Town boss also said the home fans will have a big part to play on Saturday, and over the next few games.

"The whole club's got to come together," he said.

"The lads need support, they need some unconditional support as well at times.

"It can't always be levelled at them that they've got to do x for the fans to deliver y, I think sometimes the fans have got to come and deliver regardless, and that'll bring the best out of the lads.

"But nothing would please me more to see a packed out Shay that was bouncing for 90, 95 minutes and I'm sure the lads would respond to that."