Shaymen closing in on new forward with Millington hopeful of having him available for Solihull clash

The Shaymen are closing in on adding a new striker, as Millington revealed to the Courier after Saturday's defeat at Southend, and the deal could be completed before the weekend.

"Some significant progress," Millington said, "just hoping that i's will be dotted and t's will be crossed in the next 24 hours."

On progress over the midfielder Town were also in discussions about, Millington said: "At a slower pace but we're still in conversation.

"At the moment I'm confident that forward will happen in due course, and the midfielder, we'll see where we're at come the early stages of next week."

Millington also dismissed speculation linking striker Rob Harker with a move to Doncaster Rovers.

"No, there's nothing at this stage," said the Town boss, "we've not heard anything off Doncaster for any of our players."

Harker hasn't started for Halifax since the 1-0 defeat at Aldershot on November 25, and has made three substitute appearances since then.

"Rob brings a very specific skill set that we haven't got in abundance in the group in terms of his ability to finish," Millington said.

"Much the same with Milli Alli in the early parts of his Halifax Town career, it's about doing the rest of the game, doing enough of the dirty work to make sure you're on the pitch long enough to take advantage of the chances that come your way.

"That's something Rob's building back up to after a sustained period out of the team, predominantly through injury and more recently through the good form of Jamie Cooke and Aaron Cosgrave.

"Rob's got a role to play, we just need to get him back up to the same levels he started the season at in terms of his energy and work off-the-ball, and as soon as he gets to those levels then he'll be starting more games for sure."

Millington is confident Town's new striker will only benefit his existing forward players by adding increased competition for places.

"In terms of regular first-team players, we are quite a small squad," said the Halifax manager.

"We've got players who are here to develop over a longer period, who I don't really class in that same vein.

"So when you talk about regular first-team players, we don't have an abundance of strikers so bringing in an extra striker definitely makes us more like a regular first-team environment where there's that little bit more competition and it makes it a bit more cut-throat at that end of the pitch.

"So competition is healthy, we've got a very good group in terms of their attitude and their application and I know they'll approach that competition in a really positive way.

"I expect to see the added competition have a positive impact on all of the forwards' performances."