"We felt we looked rusty," says Millington after Shaymen progress in FA Trophy

Festus Arthur's first-half goal was enough to see Halifax through in a game that never really came to life.

"If I was in the Guiseley technical area I'd probably feel a but hard done to, I thought they were excellent," Millington said.

"Since the new manager's come in there's a new energy about the place.

"There's some new signings, and some of the stronger signings weren't available to play.

"I'd probably feel a bit hard done to if I was in the Guiseley technical area, but from our point of view I think we were fairly comfortable for the majority of the game.

"With any cup tie, you always expect the opposition, when they're chasing it, to have a bit of a flurry and they did towards the end.

"We had to be right on our mettle to see it out."

Millington admitted the match wasn't a great spectacle.

"No, pretty ugly to be fair," he said.

"The credit that goes to Guiseley is they were direct, and then when they got into our half they looked to play and stay on the ball and create chances.

"I don't want to do them a disservice but from our point of view, we'd have hoped to have stayed on the ball longer and move the ball better to get ourselves up the pitch and into the opposition half.

"We did have some spells that looked quite exciting and looked like us but not enough of those really, and we certainly didn't create anywhere near as many chances as we'd have wanted to."

When asked if he put that down to Town's two-week break from action, Millington said: "A lot of it yeah, we felt we looked rusty.

"There were lads who've come off the back of having this heavy illness, this awful bug that's going round, so there's a bit of sluggishness in that sense.

"The minutes in legs were crucial, and what we wanted to do was get as many lads 90 minutes as possible, which is why we made two late changes, one because Jami Cooke took a knock and two, we felt Mani had put himself about against two strong centre-halves for a long time and we thought it was fair to give him a breather.

"We wanted to make sure as many of the cobwebs were blown off as well as they could be.

"And for the lads who didn't feature, they'll get that chance in the County Cup because we want to go into the game against Altrincham with as many players as possible having 90 minutes under their belt."

On midfielder Cooke, Millington said: "It was just a knock so he should be fine."

Jack Senior missed the game due to a slight muscle strain.

"Touch and go, we need to assess him again on Friday and see where he's up to," said Millington when asked if he thought Senior would be available for the Boxing Day game at Altrincham.

The Town boss had bad news on the absence of centre-back Jamie Stott.

"He had a clash of heads in training yesterday and unfortunately received a double fracture of the cheekbone," Millington said.

"I'm really disappointed for Jamie because he's been an absolute superstar for us in recent weeks, and a real important part of what we've been doing, so he'll be a loos, but we'll do everything we can to get him back as soon as possible."

Kian Spence was left on the bench.

"He was one who was recovering from illness most recently, so didn't feel he warranted a start because of that, but he'll be starting tomorrow night," Millington said.

Sam Minihan, Jordan Slew and Yamen Osawe will all play in tomorrow night's game against Albion Sports in the County Cup as well.

"We want to get as many minutes into them as we can," said Millington, who named youngster Frankie Sinfield on the bench ahead of the trio.

"Sinfield didn't get on the bench as it happens, he was ill just before the game," said the Halifax boss.

"We intended to involve him because he's been doing well in training, he's been playing at Thackley recently and we wanted to give him a taste of first-team experience.

"I'm not suggesting he's closer to being selected for a league fixture than the other boys, it was just an opportunity to potentially get him some minutes late in the game."

On the absence of Osawe, Millington said: "It was just because we wanted to get him 90 minutes so I didn't feel bringing him here and getting him 15, 20 minutes would be any use really.

"We want to get him as close to 90 minutes as we can tomorrow so he'll start tomorrow night."

Up next for Town in the FA Trophy is either Swindon Supermarine or Harrow Borough, who play on Wednesday night.

"It's a competition we want to progress in and we'll meet every opposition that's put in-front of us with the same intention, to go into the game to win it and try to progress because we want to go far into the competition," Millington said.

"It'll be interesting to see who comes through that tie and we'll do our homework to make sure we're fully prepared going into it."

When asked if he expects any transfer activity in the near future, Millington said: "There's a couple of names who've been offered to us who we're looking into, but nothing imminent."

Read more from the Town boss in Thursday's Courier and on our website later this week.