"We relish it" - Town boss Millington confident Shaymen can mix it with title favourites Barnet in season-opener

The Halifax boss admits they have been handed a tricky start to the new season, with home games against four of last season's top eight in August, as well as visits to Dagenham and Redbridge and Ebbsfleet.

But Millington is confident Town have what it takes to mix it with their opponents.

"We relish the big games don't we, we always turn up against the big teams and there's no bigger than Barnet this year," he said.

"They're favourites to win the league; Dean (Brennan) has stated the same, he also agrees that they should be favourites to win the league.

"So it's a great test for us, a real challenge and one we do relish.

"We do our best work in those types of games. I think back to Chesterfield last season and Wrexham the season before.

"In both of those fixtures we had important players missing and had other challenges going on, yet we really performed.

"So I expect nothing else from this group of players and it's what we do as a club.

Millington added: "There's no denying it's a tough start.

"The games we've got at home in August are against teams that, if you take us and the two promoted teams out of it, were four of the top five teams.

"So it's clearly a tough opening month of the season, and there's two long away trips to Dagenham and Ebbsfleet.

"So it doesn't come much tougher really, but we relish it.

"From my perspective, I love a challenge, I love it when it's tough, I like rolling my sleeves up and going out there to try and do everything we can to win games, and I try and recruit like-minded players, which I think the majority of the squad are.

"They're gritty, they're determined and I've no doubt will go out and give everything they've got."

Town look set to start the season without Kane Thompson-Sommers, Florent Hoti, Ryan Galvin, Jo Cummings and Max Wright due to injury.

When asked if he knew the 11 he wanted to start against Barnet, Millington said: "To a degree; it may well change because there's a preferred shape that we want to attack the season in but that is dictated by the availability of certain players.

"At the moment, there's an element of uncertainty but it's dictated by the fact we've not quite got absolute clarity one or two players' availability."

Town ended pre-season without a win or a goal in their final four games, culminating in last Saturday's goalless draw at Curzon Ashton.

"It's been a slighly prolonged pre-season, a lot of games but a lot of chopping and changing throughout those games, which we hadn't planned for really," Millington saud.

"We planned for a bit more consistency of selection but circumstances have dictated that we've had to be a bit more flexible.

"So I'm just looking forward to getting into the business of the season now, where it's about us getting a team out that can get us three points.

"It's thrown up a lot of challenges. It started off reasonably well with us getting the bulk of the squad back, and then slowly but surely, it's become more and more challenging, with picking up injuries and little knocks and niggles.

"We expected Flo Hoti and Ryan Galvin to be back by now, so having the delay in their recovery has hurt us.

"Getting into the season just helps focus everyone's mind and get us focused on the important stuff, which is trying to do everything we can to get three points on Saturday."

When asked what he wanted to see from his side on Saturday, Millington said: "The same as we were in both fixtures last season, we felt unlucky not to get the win at Barnet, we came away with a 10-0 draw and felt like we were the better team.

"We played them at Accrington towards the end of the season and but for two really poor set-pieces, we felt we were the better team on the day then as well.

"So that's what we want, we want to come away with the sense that w've been the better team, and if we have, then we want to make sure we take away the three points.

"It's about making sure we turn up, we perform and we give it everything we've got."

On what his final message to his players would be before Saturday's game, the Town manager said: "What it always is really, which is no excuses, we don't come off with any excuses.

"We know what the challenges are, we know what difficulties we've got to face given the injury list at the moment and given the challenges that lie in-front of us posed by the oppositions we've got to face.

"But we don't allow ourselves any excuses, we make sure we go out and give it everything we've got and win, lose or draw, we come off the pitch with our heads held high, that's the objective."

And asked whether he had a message to the fans for the season ahead, Millington said: "Just get behind the boys, make sure that they're on the terraces giving it everything they can.

"I'd love to see The Shay rocking every home game and make it uncomfortable for the oppositions from the terraces.

"We'll be trying to make it an umcomfortable place for the opposition on the pitch, we need the fans to help us do that.

"They're at their best when we come up against those bigger teams with the big support and it'd be great when we get the visits of teams with slightly lower numbers, we make it equally as difficult for them.

"It's a young group, some of whom won't have played in-front of big crowds before, so get behind them and let's help build them up and make sure they've got everything they need to perform to the best of their ability."