Millington urges Shaymen to be ready for battle in Saturday's FA Cup clash at St Ives Town

Cambridgeshire outfit St Ives are two divisions lower than Halifax in the pyramid, and have reached this stage of the competition for the first time in their history.

Millington says Town can't afford to be found wanting in their effort and attitude in Saturday's clash.

"We've always got to go out with the intention of trying to work harder than the opposition," he said.

"I know sometimes we haven't done that this season, and we've been punished for it.

"So we've got examples of times when we've not worked as hard as other teams and, in some cases teams I believe we're better than, and they've got good results against us.

"So there's very clear examples for me to use with the players to express how, if we don't match and overwhelm St Ives with our work rate and our intensity, then we leave ourselves open to potentially being beaten.

"They'll work hard, they'll be direct and they'll look to hurt us off set-plays and restarts, so we've got to be switched on and ready for battle.

"Every game is about attitude but these are the games where it's easy for players to think it's easy to win it without going all out.

"We've clearly got to be at our best and we certainly don't take St Ives lightly, we know they're up for it, we know the challenges they'll bring and we've got to be absolutely up for the fight, and if we are then hopefully our quality will show through."

Millington says his side is up for the cup and is targeting some giant-killing acts of their own if they can avoid being on the receiving end of one this weekend.

"It's a real privilege to be involved in it, we want to progress and we want to do well in every cup competition," he said.

"But there's something special about the FA Cup, and as much as St Ives will be approaching this as a bit of a marquee tie, we want to progress and we want the opportunity to upset some big boys further down the line.

"To do that, we've got to really apply ourselves and work hard at trying to be the better team on Saturday."

Millington was Pete Wild's assistant at Oldham when they knocked Premier League side Fulham out of the FA Cup, but was also Wild's number two at Town when they were beaten by lower-league clubs South Shields and Kidderminster.

"We've not had a great record in the cup competitions since I joined and I think that sometimes comes down to the fact that we've approached games slightly differently because it's the cup," he said.

"Although the excitement and thrill of playing in the cup does make it feel a bit different, everything else should remain the same in terms of our planning and preparation, and making sure we go out to work to be the best version of Halifax Town that we can be.

"That will be my aim, to keep the lads on track in that sense, and keep driving us to be the best version of Halifax Town we can be."

After their dreadful 4-0 home defeat by Woking, Town have taken four points from their last two games - winning 1-0 against York and drawing 1-1 at Maidstone last Saturday.

"We're probably at the early stages, we're starting to really see what the players are capable of, we're starting to see some quality about our play, some intensity in our out of possession," Millington said.

"We're starting to see some things that I hoped to see eight or ten games ago but thankful that it's coming now.

"We've got the challenges of players out with injuries who would otherwise be contributing, but the squad is strong and I believe the players who are coming in are able to do a job for the team.

"We're starting to see the early stages of what I always believed we could be, which is a high-intensity, high-pressure, exciting team to watch.

"We've got to build on certainly the York performance and what was a gritty performance at Maidstone, albeit not pretty.

"We've got to build on those now and take those forward."

But to keep building, Town need to win on Saturday.

"A defeat against a lower-ranked team feels like a blow, we've had that in the league this season where we've been beaten by teams that we feel we should be beating," Millington said.

"So we certainly know how that feels and that's something we will be working incredibly hard to avoid."

Town struggled on Maidstone's 3G pitch last Saturday in a poor game lacking quality from both teams, and will again be playing on a 3G surface at St Ives' ground.

"There are different levels of 3G's, so the one we played on at Maidstone is a 3G that's experienced some wear and tear and the life has gone out of it," Millington said.

"We trained in preparation for that game on a 3G which was a brand new 3G and felt a lot more like playing on normal grass.

"The quality of the game depends on the quality of the 3G, but one of the things we'll take from last week's game into this week's game is that we need to understand when we're able to build and play through the thirds and when it's on, because we've got that little bit of extra time, and when we need to be more direct and use the spaces in behind, which as the game wore on, we did less effectively against Maidstone.

"That's a significant lesson for us, especially when we're in the ascendancy or we've taken the lead."

Millington was again forced into changes to his starting line-up at Maidstone, meaning he has only kept the same starting 11 once this season.

"It's been incredibly difficult," he said. "One of the things I want to be able to do is make minimal changes.

"I'm not the type of guy who wants to go in and be changing players week in, week out, especially with what is a new group, you want to build some consistency and build some partnerships.

"But that's simply not been possible this season because of injuries, in a couple of situations because of poor performances and then at Maidstone, it wasn't possible for reasons off the pitch, which needed to be dealt with.

"It's been incredibly challenging, we want to build consistency on the pitch and through consistent team selection.

"We'll keep working towards that but we've got to recognise that the most successful teams have the ability to be flexible under adversity, and that's what we're trying to do, is be adaptable where challenges are thrown our way.

"So we'll continue to work to try and build consistency, but also we want to make sure we've got the adaptability to be able to deal with problems as and when they arise, which have certainly been frequent so far this season.

"Hopefully we'll see some stability over the next few weeks."

Two of his changes at Maidstone were due to disciplinary issues with defender Festus Arthur and winger Milli Alli.

"They've learned an important lesson about the expectations of the staff and their team-mates, and they know what the consequences are if they don't meet those expectations," Millington said.

"I fully believe they will now be more consistent in their behaviours and will do what's required to help us move forward."