"We're far from out of the woods" - Millington accepts Town are in danger of relegation scrap if form doesn't improve

Halifax lost 2-1 at Southend on Tuesday night, meaning they have only won once in their last ten games, excluding penalties.

They visit seventh-placed Boreham Wood on Saturday tea-time, live on BT Sport, nine points adrift of the play-offs having played a game more.

But Town are only six points above the drop zone, also having played a game more.

"Yeah, without a doubt, we're far from out of the woods," Millington told the Courier when asked whether Halifax were looking nervously over their shoulders.

"We've got to keep aspiring to be better, move up the table and get up to the area of the table that we believe we can be in.

"But the reality is, if we're not careful, then we can easily get dragged into something at the bottom end that we don't want to be involved in."

Millington accepts the buck stops with him over The Shaymen's disappointing league season.

"Ultimately the buck always stops with the manager and I'm the manager of Halifax Town, so yeah, without a doubt, the buck stops with me," he said.

"The players have got to take some responsibility and we've all got to look in the mirror and figure out are we doing enough.

"Ultimately the buck stops with me, but everybody's got some part in the process and everybody needs to be better."

Millington says he does still have faith that Town can achieve something in the league this season.

"I think the things that should give us hope are the fact that we're starting to show some level of performance," he said.

"The performance against Oldham was good, the result was good, the performance against Barnet was good, the result didn't go our way but could quite easily have done.

"The first-half performance at Southend, for an away performance against a strong team, was very assured and composed.

"But we've got to learn from the second-half because if we don't, then it really is a waste of time.

"The lads have got to learn from that experience and make sure that we don't repeat it again."

Millington accepts that Town are running out of time in what is an increasingly unlikely bid for the play-offs.

"Basic maths suggests that every result that slips away means that we're further away from where we want to be," he said.

"With every passing half of football that we underperform, it's just another missed opportunity.

"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb with the first 10 or 12 games of the season and we can't afford to do that with the last, remaining games."

On Saturday's opponents Boreham Wood, Millington said: "We've got to play every team that's put in-front of us and we've got to be better, we've got to be better than them.

"There's no fear in going to Boreham Wood at all, it's all about us and making sure that we're better.

"There's no team in this league that we're scared of.

"We're masters of our own downfall on too many occasions."

Millington said defender Tom Clarke missed the game at Southend with a sore knee, while the absences of Jordan Slew and Angelo Capello were down to selection decisions.

The Town boss said Matty Warburton is now back out running in training as he recovers from injury, while midfielders Luke Summerfield and Jamie Cooke are back kicking a ball.

But no time-frame was given on their possible return.

Saturday's game is Town's fifth of eight in a packed February.

"We want to be playing," said Millington. "I would argue that played a part in undermining what was a great run back in November, was going into what's usually a busy Christmas period and it not being busy.

"We want to be busy, we want to be playing Saturday, Tuesday, we want to get the games going nice and quick, but we also need to make sure that we start turning these games and the positive aspects of these performances into results."