“We won’t allow these situations to undermine us” – That is the defiant message from Town boss Chris Millington after a day of drama surrounding the National League play-offs.
With their 3-0 victory against Eastleigh yesterday, the Shaymen guaranteed their spot in the top seven and, it seemed, a trip to Altrincham on Wednesday for a play-off eliminator.
The league announced earlier today that Solihull, who were scheduled to play Gateshead, had received a bye into the semi-finals. Gateshead was informed yesterday that they would not be participating in the play-offs because they did not match EFL criteria.
But that was followed by another announcement that Altrincham had instead been given the bye and that Halifax would instead be visiting Solihull on Wednesday, and if they win that game, will be facing Barnet away next Saturday rather than the trip to Bromley on Sunday they would have originally faced.
“First and foremost I’m disappointed for Gateshead, I think they’ve really worked hard this season, they’ve contributed a lot to the league season and to be unable to compete for the prize we’re all chasing is an incredibly disappointing outcome for them and the integrity of the competition,” Millington stated to the Courier.
“Therefore, my first thoughts and prayers are with the players, staff, and Gateshead supporters.
“After that, I’m just quite upset with how everything has been handled.
“We organised our training programme, planned and prepared the video analysis, and spent some time on the lengthy trip back from Eastleigh on Saturday working on the preliminary stages of our statistical analysis on Altrincham. The club’s staff has been working extremely hard to arrange the travel and logistical arrangements for Wednesday, and of course, we had the ensuing chaos today.
“So just a bit disappointed with the whole way it’s been handled and I feel a sense of smypahy towards Gateshead.”
Town’s Wednesday trip to Moss Lane has been replaced with a visit to Damson Park in Solihull.
“It doesn’t really matter to us, we’ll do our best to beat whoever’s put in-front of us,” Millington said
“We enjoy playing at Solihull; we’ve had success there the past few seasons.
“We believe we should have won there this season because we won there previous season.
“Obviously it’s a new game and a new set of circumstances but we go there full of confidence off the back of what we’ve come through over the last week or so.”
The Halifax manager responded, “We’ll make the time, there’s no way we’re going to let this opportunity slip by being under-prepared,” when asked if Town would have enough time to adequately prepare for their new opponents.
“Yes, we’ll find the time. We’ll make sure we do everything we can to get there in the greatest possible shape to win the game.
“There’s been things going on this afternoon, there’s been games watched, footage clipped as we speak, so we’re well on our way to preparing everything we need to prepare to go into the game ready to get the win.”
“Like I’ve said before, the staff and the squad have a no regrets, no excuses mentality, so we won’t allow these situations to undermine us,” Millington continued.
“The fact that people are its victims is very funny. Both Bromley and Altrincham receive a bye, meaning they will naturally have an extra day to get ready for the match at the weekend.
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