"We know what we've got to do" - Millington says Town's issues are fixable after frustrating back-to-back defeats

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Chris Millington says Town's problems are fixable as they look to address them over the next couple of weeks.

The Shaymen are without a game on Saturday due to being knocked out of the FA Cup at Oldham, and return to action on November 9 at home to Woking.

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Halifax went into their mini break with consecutive defeats to Rochdale and York, leaving them tenth in the National League table, two points off the play-off places.

"The timing of the question is a challenge because of the last two results," said Millington when asked for his view on Town's season so far, "arguably two of our better performances but also we've shown some vulnerability in dealing with set-pieces, and with not finishing games off when we've been on top

Chris MillingtonChris Millington
Chris Millington

"As a whole I think the season's going well, we're moving in a good direction, I'm very pleased with the quality of the squad.

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"But we've got to make more of the chances that we create and the control we have in games, and we've got to cut out the sloppy errors leading to conceding goals, in particular on set-pieces, so that's the focus of the next two weeks."

Town's last two games have seen impressive performances go unrewarded due to conceding avoidable goals.

"I feel we have given up some points but other teams could probably argue similar," Millington said.

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"There'll be other teams who will say 'we should have won more than we have' or 'we should have picked up points here and there', so to say we're more worse off than others in that sense is probably a bit unrealistic.

"The league table doesn't lie, but what we do know is that we've performed well enough to get more points out of certain games - the ones that stick in my mind in particular are Aldershot, Solihull and the last two, obviously, Rochdale and York, where we should most definitely have picked up more points.

"But we're playing well, we're moving in the right direction and we have got some very fixable problems that we'll deal with.

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"If defending set-pieces is yout main method of conceding goals, then that's probably the easiest problem to fix in that respect.

"And as is always the case with us, we've got to do more to score more because we are controlling large periods of games, we are creating chances but just not clinical enough in the opposition box.

"So we know what we've got to do."

On whether he felt there were more positives or negatives to take from the season so far, the Halifax manager said: "I always want more, so this is probably more about me than it is a reflection of the staff or the players or the club.

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"I always want more and I always believe we're good enough to compete with the very best in the division.

"So even if we win the league, I wouldn't be satisfied by how many points we won it by, I'd always think we could have done it better.

"So I'm never going to settle for where we're at, I'm always going to want more, but the voice of reason in the staff is Andy Cooper and he'll point to an awful lot of progress we've made over the last 12 to 18 months in terms of style of play, in terms of possession, in terms of chances created, in terms of the average age of the squad.

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"We've made a lot of progress in a lot of those areas to make the team stronger and more sustainable over a longer period of time.

"So there is a lot to be pleased about but we'll never be satisfied because there's always more to do."

Millington has no doubt that his squad will only get better as the season goes on though.

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"Some of the younger players have got to learn their way around National League football and what it takes to win games at this level," said the Town boss.

"And there's others who know that, so we will get stronger, we will keep getting better.

"But the really positive thing is that we're playing some really good stuff and now we've just got to put the finishing touches on what goes off in each box.

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"We can do that, I've no doubt about it, we've got enough very good players at the club and we've got some who've just got to learn quickly about the importance of certain aspects of senior football, and they'll do that because they're hungry and they're good learners for the most part."

Millington says this week's training schedule won't change, despite Town having no game on Saturday.

"It's a full week of training, we're just in normal hours and working," he said.

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"Had we picked up more points over the last couple of games there might have been a bit more flexibility, but we didn't and we've got to show the humility of a team who have just been beaten twice by local rivals.

"So we've got to get on the grass and work hard to put those deficiencies right."

On whether having no match this weekend gives Town the chance to work on other things, Millington said: "It does but the things we are working on, we would have been working on anyway given the last two games and the manner in which we lost them.

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"Regardless of whether we'd had a game this Saturday or not, we would have been working on the same themes.

"Not having a game this Saturday just gives us the flexibility to be able to do it in a slightly different way and maybe put the players through a bit more physically than we'd have been ablet to do had we had a game scheduled for this Saturday."

Millington and Cooper will be out watching games on Tuesday and Saturday this week.

"We'll be making sure we're getting across a good number of games to keep an eye on upcoming oppositions but also, as is always the case, with an eye on future recruitment," said the Town boss.

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