Town are ‘different team’ for cup tie
Chris Millington says Halifax is a "massively different team" to the one that lost 5-1 at Aldershot earlier in the season ahead of their FA Trophy quarter-final there on Saturday.
The Shaymen's hammering at Aldershot in September was one of the low points of a disappointing campaign for the club. But Millington feels Town go into Saturday's Trophy tie with far more resolve and resilience, having just recorded their third consecutive clean sheet in Tuesday's 0-0 draw at Gateshead.
"We're a massively different team now," Millington told the Courier.
"When we went there we were very vulnerable defensively, if we conceded one we could concede five.
"We're not that team anymore, we've got a real solidity to us, there's an energy and an athleticism about us that we didn't have when we went last time. We're in a spell now where we're getting some really key bodies back in the shape of Luke Summerfield, Matty Warburton, Jack Senior, so we look like a very different prospect now. The key thing is that when we create those chances that we're working so hard to create, that we finish them off."
Halifax, like Aldershot, have struggled to make much of an impact in the National League this season, with Town 16th in the league, while Aldershot sit in 18th.
When asked if the game had the potential to save his side's season, Millington said: "I don't see it like that. Even in the last couple of seasons when we've been around the play-offs, we've still been desperate to progress in the Trophy and the FA Cup and we've failed to do so.
"We've been pretty poor in our cup runs in recent seasons.
"I guess it is a blessing that we've still got that excitement of a good cup run going, but that wouldn't change whether we were top of the league or where we are at the moment.
"We're desperate to progress in any cup competitions we enter.
"We've been desperate to have a good run in the FA Cup and the Trophy for years, since I've been here.
"So we've always approached them with the desire of progressing and going as deep into the competitions as we can, so we're dead keen to go to Aldershot.