Town boss Millington says there will be at least one new signing before Saturday's season opener against Bromley

Chris MillingtonChris Millington
Chris Millington
Town boss Chris Millington says there will be at least one new signing before Saturday's season opener against Bromley.

The Shaymen ended their pre-season schedule with a 2-1 defeat at Radcliffe, with Millington naming a second-string side for the game.

The Halifax manager told the Courier there will be one new addition before the weekend, and potentially two.

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"And then there's a third in the pipeline, which might take a bit longer to come together," he said.

On the defeat to Radcliffe, Millington said: "Largely the level of test we expected, we came into it with a lot of questions - were the triallists able to come in and make us stronger, how would the youth lads cope and could those players behind the front-line do enough to provide us with some opportunities?

"Those questions I feel we got some answers to, so in that respect it was useful, in terms of getting the extra metres and extra minutes into some of the front lads it was also positive.

"The result was disappointing, but the manner in which the lads approached the game, I'm pleased with."

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The Town boss decided against using the game as a dress rehearsal for Saturday's clash with Bromley.

"We felt that with the number of injuries we've got in the group and with the fragile nature of some of the positions within the squad, if we picked up another knock or two it'd send us into the Bromley game in a very fragile state," he said.

"Also we felt there were one or two triallists who impressed at the weekend who deserved another opportunity to try and earn themselves a contract.

"So that was why we went with a group largely made up of triallists and one or two of the younger squad members and youth team players."

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When asked whether his team selection for tonight's game meant that the rest of his first-team players would be starting on Saturday, Millington said: "Not necessarily, there's one or two who've put in a shift tonight and maybe stepped up to the mark a bit more than they had in previous pre-season games, so they've put themselves right in the frame.

"And one or two of the lads who trained this morning instead of playing tonight could arguable be edged out.

"But anyone who knows the squad well enough and knows where we're at with injuries, which I'm sure Bromley do, will probably be able to make a pretty strong prediction of what our starting 11 will be, and that doesn't particularly bother me,

"It's what we do on the day that matters.

"We've not got the squad depth to throw any big surprises anyway.

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"They'll know what they're going to come up against and we're just going to be the best version of ourselves."

On the triallists still at the club, the Town boss said: "Final decisions will be made tonight, once we've spoken as a staff and I can link up with the chairman on it tomorrow, then decisions will be finalised and progressed in terms of who we can progress with offers for and who won't get a contract."

Millington said defender Jo Cummings trained this morning and wanted to be involved tonight.

"But we didn't want to take that risk of overstretching him too quickly," Millington said.

"He'll definitely be in the frame for Saturday."

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Midfielder Luke Summerfield isn't expected to be fit for Saturday's game, but has a chance of being in contention for the trip to Boreham Wood.

On defender Tom Clarke, Millington said: "Less likely, we've wrapped him up in cotton wool for a little while because his knee was flaring up."

Max Wright is in the frame for Saturday, but Florent Hoti remains unavailable until September.

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