"We've just got to get back to doing the basics as well as we possibly can," says Millington ahead of Aldershot game

The Shaymen have been badly out-of-sorts in their last two games, with a much-improved second-half display rescuing a point at Fylde last Tuesday before a drab outing in defeat at Wealdstone on Saturday.

And the Halifax boss says there has been a refocusing on what needs to change.

"Sunday was probably the worst Sunday I've had in a long time," he said, "it was one of those times when your brain doesn't give you any peace because you're trying to work through where we're at, what we need to improve and what the priorities are, how we can achieve those as quickly and efficiently as possible.

"What that's given me and us as a management team is absolute clarity on what we need to address to move us forward in an efficient way.

"What you find in management quickly is the best learnings happen in defeat and adversity.

"It's easy when you're winning game after game and things are ticking along nicely but then when you have a couple of poor performances and a defeat where you don't meet the standards you've set yourself, it creates a bit of space and an opportunity to really focus on where we're at and what we need to improve on.

"So we go into Aldershot with a great amount of clarity about how we're going to play, what the team's going to look like and what we want to achieve in our play."

When asked what will be prioritised in search of improvements, Millington said: "If you look at the season as a whole we've been fantastic in winning defensive duels and I apologise to the fans who are reading this because it comes across as a bit of coach-speak, but we've not won as many defensive duels, we've not been as well organised, opposition teams are getting more touches in our box than we've had all season and clearly that results in us conceding more goals.

"The very basic things we need to address, all the stats back-up where the problems are and what we need to do better.

"The danger of being the coaching environment we are is that we can sometimes be accused of overcomplicating it but at the moment we've just got to get back to doing the basics as well as we possibly can and we know that if we do that, we'll start pushing up the division again."

Millington admits his side have two hugely challenging home games coming up, against fellow promotion hopefuls Aldershot and Solihull Moors..

"We're often at our best when we're facing a stiff challenge, whether that's having to turn around a poor run of form or coming up against a strong team doing well in the division," he said.

"I'd be fairly confident we'll be at our best in the next couple of games.

"But players within this squad are learning, they're learning about life in a senior first-team environment, they're leaning how to make the most of their attributes in a senior first-team environment and they're learning how to improve some of the areas that they need to improve in this environment.

"So they're learning all the time and at the moment, the big learning is 'how do I keep contributing and keep having an impact for the team when my form's not quite at the level it can be?'

"That's something they've got to learn quickly because we've got ambitions for this season and we want to do everything we can to try and achieve them."

Aldershot go into the game in seventh place, three spots and four points above Town in the National League table.

"They're doing alright, but we're talking about Aldershot having a fantastic season, but before their game on Tuesday they'd played the same amount of games as us and were only three points ahead of us," Millington said.

"So we can't be having too bad a season ourselves, which is another bit of perspective that Andy Cooper neatly provided for me on Sunday, not getting too distracted by a couple of poor performances and a defeat away at Wealdstone.

"The wider picture is that, actually, there's a lot of positives in our season so far and if we can mirror what we did at the back end of last season, which was go on a fantastic run and put together a consistent run of results, then we're going to put ourselves in an area of the table we want to be.

"But to do that we've got to focus on ourselves and focus on what we're doing in the here and the now."

Defeat for Town on Saturday, combined with other results going against them, could see the gap increase from them to the top seven.

"You saw it on Saturday with some of the results, Oldham were flying high going into Saturday but were brought back to earth with a bump, and other teams as well," Millington said.

"And that's going to happen. You're going to see these strange results coming out more and more regularly.

"What we've got to do is focus on ourselves.

"Maybe I'm at fault to a degree for getting ahead of myself and talking too much about the promotion picture rather than the approach I'm much more comfortable with, which is one game at a time and doing everything we can to try and beat that upcoming opposition.

"So if anything, it's a reminder to me that where we end up at the end of April will be a direct result of what I focus mine and the squad's energies on in the here and now, so that's something I've got to get back to and learn a lesson from."

On whether the players' attention had also shifted a little too much towards the end goal of the play-offs, Millington said: "The players will generally, consciously or subconsciously, follow mine and the staff's lead.

"I know I've been guilty of talking too much about the season as a whole and where we want to be come the end of April.

"If I take my focus off what we're doing in the here and now and what we're trying to do to beat Aldershot, then it follows that the people around me are probably going to do the same thing.

"So in that respect, the buck stops with me and I've got to make sure that I focus my energies on the here and now and what we can do to beat Aldershot and I'm sure that'll transfer to the staff and the players."