Halifax Town manager Chris Millington puts 'fairly even game' at York City in context

It hurt because the Shaymen had led for 107 minutes of a game drawn out in particular by a nasty injury to York right-back Ryan Fallowfield, but Callum Howe's header in the 10th minute of second-half stoppage-time gave the scoreline a fair reflection.

Halifax raced into a 2-0 lead when Adam Senior scored in the second minute and Tom Pugh almost immediately from the restart. But Millington admitted his side lost the initiative after that, and only regained it in the second half.

So whilst he thought his side were well worth a point, he admitted three might have been generous.

"It was probably a fairly even game," he commented.

"York had the better of the possession, they'll argue they had the better of the territory but when it comes to the action the keepers have had to deal with I know Sam Johnson's made one phenomenal save to his left but other than that, what's he really had to do?

"We work a lot on defending our box and we do it well the majority of times.

"Today was probably a fairly even affair, it's just the context that makes it sting a bit, the fact we have this awful habit of conceding late goals to York City."

And Millington conceded his side should have done better with their 2-0 lead.

"We didn't deal with it well," he said.

"We dropped off, our wingers started to get deeper when they should have been higher up the pitch.

"We fixed that at half-time and we did it a lot better in the second half.

"I think they call it the most dangerous scoreline in football because all it takes is one goal from the opposition and momentum shifts hugely. That's what happened (Ollie Pearce converting a penalty for a Senior foul on him).

"But I think we should have and could have had enough on another day to see out the second half because it was a much more balanced affair.

"We set the traps we wanted to set, we forced York to go a lot longer and had we not suffered the injuries and made the changes we had to make, including a shape change, we might have seen the game out but the chaos at the end maybe just overwhelmed us and led to us being a bit disorganised on that second phase."

Scott High was injured in a stoppage-time tackle which earnt York substitute Ashley Nathaniel-George a red card.

Millington said the former Hudderfsield Town and Rotherham United midfielder would have been substituted had he not made all his permitted changes by then.

"The one disappointment I would level at it was the fact that York were down to 10 men when they scored the equaliser," said Millington.

"Commonsense dictates we should have been able to see it out.

"Scott High insisted on staying on but it looks like he's got quite a serious injury.

"It's a blow and it hurts but in the wider context we've taken a point at a very good team."

Halifax host Dagenham and Redbridge on Tuesday.