Millington: ‘Our expectation is that we can build on what we did last year’

CONTINUED FROM BACK

“We’re aware that when it got the stage of the season where teams were paying us a bit more respect and sitting in, we had to have a bit more about us in trying to unpick teams.

“So there will be players and systems in place that will allow us to do that, along with the ability to do what we did in the early part of the season, which was be very effective on the counter-attack.

“There’s not many teams at this level who’ve got a wellrounded approach and who can take two or three different approaches - sitting in and hitting on the counter-attack or offering a possession-based game that unpicks teams - we want to be effective at all aspects of that, so we’re building a training programme and selecting a team that will deal with all those different aspects.”

Millington says he and Wild will look to learn from promoted sides Barrow and Harrogate at what made them successful in last season’s fifth tier.

“You look at the top teams and you aspire to be better than them,” he said.

“Barrow had the ability to keep possession and wear teams down with possession, but also to hit from deep on the counter-attack.

“Harrogate displayed a really good energy throughout the play-off process, and a high level of fitness, and there was a togetherness about them as a team.

“So there are aspects of both those teams that we’ll look to emulate, as well as building on what we did well last year, which was a solid defensive structure, we were difficult to beat at times and we were a good possession-based side.”

Millington accepts it is inevitable that expectations will have risen after last season’s play-off finish.

“I would imagine so,” he said. “I think our (he and Wild) expectations are pretty hard to meet anyway.

“We want the fans to expect the best for the team and the club.

“What we also want them to do is understand that we will always give everything we possibly can to try and make this club successful.

“We will always go the extra mile, we will always work that little bit harder than the competition, we will always try and provide an environment for the players to be successful.

“If all of that comes together then we should meet the expectations of the fans and be competing up there again.

“I hope the fans expect us to do well and our expectation is that we can build on what the team did last year, which was a really solid finish.

“Although we were disappointed with the result against Boreham Wood, I think that performance showed that we can compete at that end of the division.

“We’re not there by luck or because we’ve had a plucky season where we’ve given it a go, we’re there because the players have worked hard, they’ve bought into what we wanted to do and we’re there because we deserved to be.”