"We've got everything in place" - Shaymen boss Millington says Town are ready for start of the season

Halifax rounded-off their pre-season campaign with a 2-1 defeat at Colne last Saturday, on the same day they also won 3-0 at Curzon Ashton.

And the Shaymen boss feels his players are all set for their season opener in the capital this weekend.

"We've got everything in place we need to," he said, "we've got a squad that's strong enough to enter the season, they're physically prepared and look mentally ready to go into competition.

"We are well prepared, we have an athletic group of players in the squad this season.

"We have pace in the right areas but we've also got control and professionalism throughout the squad as well.

"In the moments of the game when the opposition inevitably get a little bit of momentum, I think we've got a group of players who are able to manage that much better than we maybe were in previous seasons.

"We're starting with the intention of going out to win the game.

"We've got a very clear identity and a style of play we want to impose on every game we go into.

"That won't change, there will be flexibility in terms of game-plan depending on different opposition, and there'll be a little bit of flexibility around formation.

"But we're going to approach every game with the intention of going out and trying to win it.

"That may be by having a really controlled out-of-possession game-plan and building into it, or it may be going all guns blazing from the first whistle.

"But we will have a plan to go out and try to win every game."

Millington added: "The aim for us this season, which wasn't dissimilar last season for the most part, is to focus on the upcoming opposition and how we can get three points in that particular game.

"It'd probably be naive to suggest we're going to win every game this season but we'll go into every individual game with the intention of trying to win it and that will be the objective.

"We've got plans for get-togethers and talking through what individual and group objectives should look like.

"But we're very unified in our objectives around trying to prepare ourselves to beat Barnet and that's the most important thing."

When asked if he knew his starting 11 for Saturday's game, Millington said: "No, not completely. We're a few days out, there's an awful lot of very good footballers in very good shape in this squad.

"Every position really is up for grabs, so I've not completely decided on the starting 11 for Barnet yet."

On what he is expecting from The Bees, Millington said: "Much the same as usual, I think they'll be athletic, I think they'll have pace, I think they'll attack quickly and be relatively direct in their attempts to break forward quickly on transition.

"They'll work hard and I know they'll be well organised because of the work that's gone into building that squad, putting it together and preparing it for the start of the season."

Other than winger Jamie Allen, whose future remains unresolved after his appearance in Love Island, Millington was expecting Kian Spence to be the only absentee from his squad, with the midfielder yet to feature for the club since the end of last season.

"Kian Spence is still working his way back from injury from last season, but other than that we're in a good place and everybody's available for selection," Millington said.

"We're hoping in the next ten days to two weeks he should be available for selection.

"He's back in training now, he's not quite in full training, but he's not a million miles off and we expect that to happen towards the end of this week, and we'll build him up from there."

And on defender Jesse Debrah, Millington said: "To my knowledge, the final bid from Huddersfield was made a little while ago and was rejected, and they started there was going to be no further offers at this stage.

"So as far as I understand it, I think that interest has passed away now."