"The performance wasn't great," admits Millington as Shaymen reach FA Cup first round

Jamie Cooke put Halifax into an early lead, but the game wasn't put to bed until late goals by substitutes Angelo Capello and Mani Dierseruvwe.

"I think we should have probably won it in the first half-hour to be fair, we were so dominant and we played such good football," Millington said.

"It was disappointing not to come in at half-time 3-0 or 4-0 up.

"True to form, we made hard work of it but I think over the course of the 90 minutes we probably just about deserved it."

The Town boss agreed at the suggestion that the scoreline flattered The Shaymen.

"Yeah definitely, I think St Ives, credit to them, they've been fantastic the way they welcomed us from the minute we arrived and the way they approached the game was fantastic, especially as the game went on and they threw caution to the wind," Millington said.

"I thought there were some excellent passages of play from them, so they'll certainly feel hard done to to have at least not earned themselves a replay."

On his team's performance, Millington said: "I thought when they tried to drop off into a block and tried to make themselves difficult to beat, we were very, very good.

"Once they started coming after us and pressing us higher up the pitch, we didn't play through quite as well.

"Clearly it creates more of an issue on a tighter pitch.

"I hate to be the guy who goes on about surfaces but it's a fact it's a little bit harder to play really slick possession football on a dry 3G.

"Don't get me wrong, it's a good quality 3G but when they came after us it made it a little bit more difficult and we found ourselves hitting channel balls a little bit more than I would have liked us to do.

"But it's a cup game and the most important thing for us was to get the result."

Millington added: "The performance wasn't great, there were some excellent patches in the first-half but over the 90 minutes there probably wasn't enough to call it a really good performance.

"As much as I bang on about the performance being the most important thing, today, being a cup game, we just wanted to be in the next round, so we go away content we've done enough to earn that."

Sam Johnson made some excellent saves with the game at 1-0 at Halifax coming under strong pressure from the hosts.

"To some degree I was quite Sam was involved as much as he was at one point because we've had some games recently where he hasn't had a lot to do and then he's conceded a goal or two, through no fault of his own," Millington said.

"It's good for keepers to be making saves and showing their worth and value to the team so I was really pleased for Sam for his performance."

Cooke and Capello scored their first goals for Halifax, while Dierseruvwe netted his fifth of the season.

"We want as many players as possible to contribute, it's important for Mani to get a tally going as well," Millington said.

"It's important he builds on that and continues to score.

"We want Rob Harker to be contributing because he's here to score goals and he's an excellent finisher.

"But then we need good numbers of goals from other areas of the pitch, so to start getting goals off other players is really important so we can go into other games with confidence that we're not just relying on one or two players to score."

On the absence of skipper Tom Clarke, Millington said: "The intention was to not involve him unless we absolutely had to because he played 90 minutes on a 3G last week, but he's also been off ill this week along with a couple of others.

"So we didn't feel it was right to involve him."

Luke Summerfield also came out of the Town starting 11.

"We've got a good squad and we're blessed with midfielders so it was an opportunity for other people to get minutes and show their worth to the team," said Millington.

The Halifax boss said Matty Warburton was "still progressing" as he tries to return to fitness, and said Jordan Keane underwent an operation yesterday.

"He had a specialist appointment on Monday and they advised an operation, which took place on Friday," Millington said.

"So we're looking at a few weeks out for him.”