"Ultimately the buck stops with me" says Millington as Town's miserable start to the season continues

Halifax's miserable start to the season continued thanks to a brace from Macaulay Longstaff and a goal each from Cedwyn Scott and Kairo Mitchell.

The only positive for Town was their first goal of the season through Harvey Gilmour.

"Thoughts, feelings, emotions - there's 101 of each of them," said Millington after the game.

"Thoughts are that we looked weak when we had to defend our own box.

"Feelings are frustration and disappointment.

"We've got to be better, I know I keep saying it and it's no good keeping on trotting out the same old lines.

"As a team, we should have looked to have won that game, we should have been in a position to go and win that game in the second-half.

"Because we switch of in the last five minutes of the half, we're going into the second-half with a mountain to climb."

When asked what he had said to his players after the game, Millington replied: "That it's got to be a turning point now.

"This has got to represent a rock bottom in our season.

"It's a performance that doesn't represent me as a person, it doesn't represent the club, it doesn't represent the town and the fans.

"We were weak in areas of our play which we have to eradicate.

"Ultimately, this has got to be the turning point because clearly, we're five games into the season with one draw and it's simply not good enough."

Millington retains the belief that this can still be a successful season for Town, despite their dreadful start.

"My main message to the fans is to not misread the results, and in particular the defensive performance today, as a lack of care and a lack of desire," he said.

"That's one ting we've got in abundance, as a staff and as a group of players.

"We care desperately for the club and for the town and for the fans.

"It's incredibly humiliating for all of us to be at this point, five games in, when we know the potential within the club, we know the potential within the town.

"We believe we've got everything we need to push the club into the Football League.

"So I'd just ask them to believe that we're doing everything within our power to turn it around and kick start what we still believe can be a fantastic season."

When asked what was going wrong on the pitch, Millington said: "I think there is a lack of confidence that's developed where we've looked vulnerable today in the handful of chances they've had, we've looked like we were going to concede, and clearly we did.

"So a lack of confidence is one thing.

"I hope that the goal today gives us the confidence and the belief that we can carry a goal threat, but it's now about pulling those two ends of the spectrum together.

"What we do in the opposition box when the chances drop to us and what we do in our box when chances drop to the opposition, in terms of Sam making saves, defenders making blocks, people consistently putting their bodies on the line to make sure that we give the town and the fans exactly what they deserve, which is a successful football team."

Millington accepts there is pressure on him to get results, and quickly.

"Absolutely, ultimately the buck stops with me," he said.

"They're my group of players, they're prepared by decisions that I make about what goes off in training.

"I'm responsible for making sure that they're ready and able to give the performances that earn the results that we need to be the team we want to be.

"So yeah, absolutely, the pressure's on me to turn it around.

"It's not something I shy away from, I take great pride in my role and my responsibility and I think it's a great privilege to lead this football club. I don't take it lightly in any shape of form."

Asked when Town's awful start to the season will be turned round, Millington said: "I've said to the lads this has got to be a turning point, so it's got to represent something of a rock bottom whereby we do everything within our power to gain a positive result from Scunthorpe.

"We've got to take the things we've done well over the first five games of the season and build on them.

"And we've got to eradicate the things that we've done poorly over the first five games, or we've certainly got to eradicate as many of them as we possibly can.

"The challenge is we've got to do that on Monday without an opportunity to properly prepare like we would for a normal game.

"But it's also a benefit that we go into a game so quickly on the back of that because we've got an opportunity to put it right very, very quickly."

Town unsuccessfully appealed for Longstaff's first goal to be called offside.

"I don't know (if it was), said Millington, "but regardless of that we had other opportunities to defend it and we didn't take them."

Millington felt all of Notts County's goals were avoidable.

"If that game ended 0-0, nobody would have been surprised because we've gifted them opportunities to score," he said.

"If we don't gift them the opportunities, the game peters out into a 0-0 draw, nobody would have been surprised.

"But I believe had we stayed in the game for longer, I think we could have started to develop some control in possession terms later in the game, which could have resulted in us winning.

"But it's all academic because ultimately, we conceded two very soft goals at a very bad time and leave ourselves with a mountain to climb."

Town started the game in a 3-5-2 formation for the first time this season, which Millington felt worked well until County's first goal.

"The game went how we wanted it to go in the first-half when we were in the 3-5-2, other than them scoring soft goals that we gave them on a plate," he said.

"So if you remove the soft goals from it, then yeah, the system worked because it gave us the control within the game that we were looking for in the first-half.

"We knew that as the game went on, the spaces would open up for us to hopefully start controlling possession more.

"The result suggests that it didn't work, but the subjective view of it when you consider how soft the goals were would suggest that, until that point, it was working quite well."

Striker Rob Harker was taken off at half-time by Millington.

"I felt we needed a bit more energy up top," he said.

"We're asking, as a ream, when we've not got the ball, everybody becomes a defender and we just needed a little bit more pressure.

"It was Rob's first start in a long time, so we knew he was going to fade and going to tire.

"It was always the intention he'd be taken off at some point, but we felt at half-time, given the scoreline, we needed to inject that intensity a little bit earlier than we'd originally planned."

Midfielder Luke Summerfield went off with an ankle injury.

"We'll assess him on Sunday and see where he's up to for Monday," said the Town boss.

"But regardless of that, we've got to weigh up whether these lads who haven't been given a chance yet deserve to step in and have an opportunity.

"We've stuck with some lads so far and clearly it's not working so we're going to have to make some changes anyway."

On the three players who dropped out of the starting 11, Sam Minihan, Sam Smart and Jordan Slew, Millington said: "Minihan had a dead leg in training yesterday so he was withdrawn this morning.

"Smart and Slew was because of the change in shape, we didn't feel it was going to be their type of game."

New signing Osayamen Osawe came off the bench for his debut.

"He's got a challenge to make sure he's match fit and he's going to need minutes to be match sharp," Millington said.

"So we'll review his performance, review his physical output and then make a decision on the starting 11."