"We didn't play with anywhere near enough character or personality," says Lakeland after goalless draw at Yeovil
Halifax manager Adam Lakeland said his team didn't show enough intent or quality in their 0-0 draw at Yeovil.
Town were the better side, and hit the bar late on through Jay Turner-Cooke's spectacular effort from his own half, but Lakeland didn't feel his side hit the levels needed.
"Another frustrating afternoon really," he said.
"I didn't think either team, in terms of the players on the pitch, played with anywhere near enough intent to win the game, it felt like a pre-season friendly in the first-half and I felt like we played in second or third gear.
"With all due respect to them, I felt they were the same, for a home team with nothing to play for, didn't make sense.
"We had so much control in the first-half, they sat off us and made it very difficult for us to break them down.
"The times we went through the gears a bit we managed to get behind them or down the sides of them and then our quality was disappointing.
"We had a couple of decent chances, the keeper's made a decent save off Jay Turner-Cooke from a corner we worked well, then from the resulting corner we should score and from the resulting long throw we had a chance.
"Second-half we wanted the lads to try and go through the gears a bit and play with more purpose and more intent to try and win the game, which is very hard when you start a game playing safe, very hard to get your levels up to the required levels.
"When we did try to get through those levels a bit, our decision-making and quality let us down at times.
"We still created a couple of decent chances, one with Billy Waters where it's a good pass into him, good movement from Billy, great first touch and he just needed a bit of composure but smashed it over the bar, that was probably the biggest chance we had.
"We made aggressive changes to try and win the game and risked losing it which, in fairness to them, with us having so many attacking players on the pitch in that last ten minutes, they had a couple of chances on the break they should have converted.
"I'm frustrated, particularly seeing Southend have drawn because I said to the lads before the game 'we don't want to be approaching the last three games and not giving everything to win them because if you're coming here and they've dropped points, you'll kick yourselves'.
"Now they're kicking themselves, so a frustrating afternoon.
"A betting man would probably have put good money on that being 0-0 after ten minutes nbecause I thought it was one of the most boring gasmes of football I've watched at this level all season and one thing I'd like to think my teams never are is boring.
"We haven't been boring all season. We didn't play with anywhere near enough character or personality, purpose, intent - all the things that have made us a great side this season, unfortunately I haven't seen enough of that today and that's disappointing."
The Town boss felt his team didn't make enough of some promising moments in the Yeovil box.
"There were several moments in the game where we've put the ball in their box and it's bobbling and bouncing around and you think 'go on, somebody go and smash the ball in the net' but they get a foot to it and clear it," he said.
"That's happened a bit too much in the last few games and is probably why we've not won on Monday or today."
Yeovil had some good chances late on in the game, which Lakeland said was as a result of Town pushing for a winner of their own.
"They just capitalised on us having so many attacking players on the pitch," he said.
"We wanted to win, we didn't feel like the players that started the game and that were on the pitch for 55 minutes, until we started making changes, they had the answers or the solutions so we wanted to be aggressive with our changes and I think that's why they've had chances at the end.
"For the majority of the game I felt we had a lot of control but you have so many attacking players on the pitch, we're playing a winger at left-back, two centre-halves, one of which is on a yellow card, that makes it difficult on transitions, the rest are all attack-minded players, so they had a couple of chances on the break and they should have scored.
"That was us rolling the dice trying to win it."
It's now four clean sheets on the spin away from home for Halifax, but Lakeland said it was at the othe end of the pitch where his team came up short.
"I expect clean sheets and we haven't had enough of them this season," he said.
"If you compare the number we've had to the teams above us, wehaven't had enough and that's something we need to look at.
"That's four clean sheets away from home in a row and we've taken ten points from the last four away games without conceding a goal.
"We haven't done enough at the other end of the pitch today to break a team down.
"I remember these when they were in the Championship and they'vre sat in at home against us in that first-half, they've showed no intent at all, and we got sucked into it a bit in that first-half, it felt a bit like a pre-season friendly, there was no meaning to the game.
"Then I feel like we weren't able to get through the gears and get to the levels we've been setting all season, probably because of the way we went about it in the first-half.
"A clean sheet, another point but unfortunately, points at this stage aren't enoiugh and it makes it an even more difficult one to take when you see (Southend) have drawn as well because there was an opportunity there to claw a couple of points back on them and keep things interesting for another week, but it is what it is.
"It doesn't matter what everybody else does, you've got to win your own games and we've not done that in the last two, so it's irrelevant what Southend do."