"They faced up to the challenge" - Millington praises Town fightback after 2-2 draw at Fylde

The Shaymen were deservedly 2-0 down at half-time, but battled back thanks to goals from Jamie Cooke and substitute Florent Hoti to earn a point.

"A point away from home is always a positive point," Millington told the Courier.

"I think the ay Fylde are playing at the moment and the way they've improved in recent weeks, they've had two good wins against Hartlepool and Rochdale, which highlights how well they're doing at the moment, how well they're playing and the improvement they've had under Chris (Beech) and with the new additions.

"So from that point of view, a good point.

"When we look at our own performance, I thought we were incredibly poor first-half, we looked like a team who hadn't played for a few weeks and deserved to be 2-0 down at half-time.

"So that was very frustrating and for a management team who like to focus on tactics and what have you, we didn't really have to do that, it was more about making sure that the lads recognised we had to win more duels, win more battles and play with more intensity in the second-half.

"Thankfully they did that and did just about enough to get the point."

When asked if his team's attitude was the issue in a dreadful first-half display, Millington said: "It's always a problem when you've not had a game for so long, we're always acutely aware that it's a danger.

"I know Fylde have only had one more game than us in recent weeks, in the FA Trophy, but having no competitive fixtures can give you that problem, especially when you've got lads coming back into the team who haven't played for a while like Tylor, Ryan Galvin and Adan George, it was his first appearance at the level.

"So that can have an impact, but I thought we were poor, slow out of the blocks and we got what we deserved first-half."

On his team's much improved second-half, the Town boss said: "I think in the conditions, and being up against a team who were at it from the word go, you go in 2-0 down and there's always that danger that players pack in and go hiding.

"We've got to give our boys credit because they didn't, they faced up to the challenge and they got themselves back into the game.

"Fylde had a few goalmouth scrambles in the game, even in the second-half, but I think the chances we've created - Angelo Cappello worked a great chance for himself one-on-one with the keeper but misses the target, the cutback to Jamie Cooke and he misses the target, Flo Hoti's cutback to Max Wright and he misses the target.

"They were three incredibly good chances that, with a little bit of composure, could have seen us win the game.

"We know we've got to be better in-front of goal but we've scored two good goals and created three or four other very good chances.

"I think what we can't do is give teams a head start now, because that's been a strength of ours this season, so we've got to make sure that when teams do have a spell of dominance in a game, we don't concede.

"Today we've scored and created chances, so we've got to take that as a positive."

Millington praised the impact of all three of his substitutes on the game.

"Flo Hoti had a massive influence on the game, Max Wright was very impactful and Rob Harker gave us a bit more physicality up top," he said.

"I thought in the latter stages, as Adan was tiring, you could see there was just a little lack of physicality up against their back four, so we needed that presence up top and that's what Rob brought us."

And on debutant Adan George's performance, Millington said: "With the performance of the rest of the team it made it difficult being that lone striker for the opening part of the game, but he's got a great touch, he linked play well, he threatened off the shoulder well and he got himself into the box so when balls were delivered in there, we had him in and around it, which is what we're asking him to do.

"We know that if the ball falls to him in the box, more often than not, his quality will help him find the net."

Read more from the Town boss later this week on the Courier website.