FC HALIFAX Town manager Chris Millington believes that his chastened Shaymen side paid the price for a lack of depth and experience in the final key part of the season after their 2024-25 campaign ended in a whimper in a 4-0 Roses reverse at the first play-off hurdle at Oldham Athletic.

The game was effectively decided inside 12 minutes at the start, with headed goals from Joe Garner, Mark Kitching and ex-Shaymen forward Mike Fondop giving Latics a 3-0 lead in front of just under 11,000 fans at Boundary Park, including just over 1,800 Halifax followers.

Joe Prichard added a fourth in the second half for Oldham, who visit York City in an elimination National League semi-final next Tuesday.

Millington, whose side have also suffered injury issues in the final part of the season, said: "The reality is we've just not been good enough, they're a better team, a better squad.

Halifax Town's disappointed manager Chris Millington and his players acknowledge the Town fans at the end of a 4-0 play-off drubbing at Oldham Athletic. Photo: Tony Johnson.

placeholder image — Halifax Town's disappointed manager Chris Millington and his players acknowledge the Town fans at the end of a 4-0 play-off drubbing at Oldham Athletic. Photo: Tony Johnson.

"You need strength-in-depth when you get to these stages of the season and we just don't have that.

"Forest Green, York, Oldham, Rochdale have much better strength-in-depth and we just don't have that.

"The one thing that hurt us was the fact that the lads we need to step up and be leaders within the group are still only 23, 24 themselves.

"So it's not so much the 19, 20-year-olds, it's more that we're putting an awful lot of weight and responsibility onto the likes of Flo Hoti and Jamie Cooke, who maybe aren't ready for that level of responsibility and leadership."

Halifax Town boss Chris Millington feels the pain at the final whistle at Boundary Park after the Shaymen's season ended. Photo: Tony Johnson.

On the night, Millington felt a lack of physicality proved his side's undoing, allied to a deficiency in experience.

He added: "I can hand on heart say, from the manager down to the last player that came on the pitch, they were better across the board.

"So we've just got to take our medicine, accept the better team won on the night and take some time to reflect.

"We knew exactly what the patterns would look like, we knew the midfield runners off the forwards, we prepared for the diags, we prepared for how we'd deal with that, we knew what threat they carried off set-pieces.

"And we just didn't cope with it well enough.

"The bit I have to take responsibility for is the fact that we didn't have enough physicality in the starting 11, to cope with it, and the players didn't have enough physicality amongst themselves to be able to deal with it.

"Oldham were better across the board and deservedly won."