"We looked naïve in the second-half," says Millington after defeat at Southend

Jesse Debrah gave Halifax a 1-0 half-time lead, but second-half goals from Jack Bridge and Gus Scott-Morriss sealed a turnaround for the hosts.

"They were better than us second-half, by a country mile," Millington told the Courier.

"We controlled the game first-half and we felt very confident going in at half-time because I don't think they had a shot, let alone a shot on target.

"We felt we were fairly comfortable in the game and as it became more open we felt we could go on and potentially score more.

"But they were miles better than us second-half.

"They were quicker in midfield, they won more first contacts when the ball went forward and they committed more men forward.

"There was a slight tweak in terms of the shape when Cardwell came off, whether or not it was intentional I'm not sure, but Sendat dropped in and took away our overload in the middle, which was the first thing that hurt us.

"But then we're naïve, we give away free-kicks, throw-ins on the side where there's long throws, we give away corners over and over again, and we find ourselves penned in.

"And when you're defending that many balls into your box against a good team you're going to concede goals, it is going to happen.

"We looked naïve in the second-half."

Bridge's equaliser for Southend came from the penalty spot after Jamie Stott was adjudged to have pushed a United player in the penalty area.

"I didn't think it was a pen," said Millington. "I know Jamie Stott had his hands up but he's tracking a man in the box who just stops all of a sudden and Jamie's behind him, what's he going to do?

"Whether his hands are up or not, he's going to hit him, that's natural contact when bodies are milling about in the box, so I didn't think it was a pen.

"But that aside, you're still inviting the pressure over and over again, something's got to give.

"I've spoken to the referee and he believes that it wasn't natural contact in the box, I believe it was, but it's academic, he gave it."

Southend protested vehemently that Town's opener came via handball.

"No it wasn't," Millington said, "Jesse's bundled it in, but not with his hands."

On Southend's winning goal, Millington said: "I don't know what happened, I believe it was an own goal.

"It's not the set-piece in this case, I think when we concede the corner against Barnet, that was a mistake on our part.

"In this case, they've put a good ball in but because we keep inviting the pressure, just by the law of probabilities, sooner or later you're going to concede one.

"So we've got to stop conceding soft set-pieces, whether it's corners or free-kicks, around our own box."

After falling behind, Town never looked like levelling.

"They were better, they were faster, they were sharper, they were better than us. Second-half they were better than us," said Millington.

"As much as it pains me to say it, they were the better team second-half."

When asked whether he might have made different substitutions rather than like-for-like changes of Rob Harker and Fidel O'Rourker replacing Milli Alli and Max Wright, Millington said: "Not really no, because we were already getting overrun in midfield so the only option would have been to take a player out of midfield, and it would have just led to us being even more overrun in the middle area of the pitch.

"So there was no quick fix there unfortunately."

It's now one win in ten for The Shaymen, excluding penalties.

"We're on a run where we're playing some difficult teams aren't we," said Millington, "Oldham aren't an easy team to play against, Barnet are obviously dong very well, Southend are doing very well, we've got Boreham Wood coming up, who are another team who are at the right end of the table, so it doesn't get any easier.

"But we've just got to be better, they were better than us, they maintained the levels of intensity that it requires to win football games at National League level, and we didn't."

Asked how his side can be better, Millington said: "When we played Oldham, we won more duels than we lost, when we played Barnet, we at least won as many duels as them, if not more.

"But we didn't win anywhere near as many duels as Southend when the ball was in the air.

"Even if we won the first header, it was them who won the second or landed on it or tidied up, and we were nowhere near achieving what we needed to achieve in terms of landing on seconds and competing for second balls.

"They were better at it than us. It was a horrible, ugly, scrappy, direct game, the type of game we're not best suited to but we've got to be better at because the league demands it."

Millington added: "I'm very angry, I'm very frustrated because we start to show signs of the team we want to be and then Southend have been better at playing this type of game, the direct play, dealing with seconds, they've landed on more second balls and driven through us too often.

"It feels very frustrating that we seem to just be on the cusp of a good thing and then we come up against a team who have just done it better than us."

It is now looking increasingly unlikely Town will be good enough to reach the play-offs this season.

"I have faith, I always have faith that we can do it, but I'd agree that it looks increasingly unlikely, because the teams we need to be beating are unfortunately beating us," Millington said.

When asked why that was, the Town boss said: "The start to the season didn't help us, we took too long to get going, and the reasons behind that are well documented.

"We then had a good run of games which was ended in December and we didn't really have a chance throughout December and January to really get going again because of the scarcity of fixtures.

"Now we're into a run of games we've got to start picking up points and getting results because as much as winning is a habit, losing can become a habit very quickly.

"Regardless of all the training we do and the nice talk and the tactics and the set-up, if we've not got that ability to win our individual battles, then we put ourselves at risk of losing more games than we want to."