Josh Hmami’s early goal was enough to seal Halifax’s first win of the season after back-to-back defeats, and three days after playing most of the game at Wealdstone with ten men.
When asked if he felt Town deserved the win, Lakeland said: “Absolutely yeah, I thought we were the better team.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to look at the game back and look at the data but I feel like we had the lion’s share of possession and I certanly feel like we had the better chances, and we should have scored more than once really.
“To keep a clean sheet, and show the resilience, character and organisation and structure we did, combined with playing some really nice football at times, and looking a threat right throughout the game, it was pleasing to see and yeah, I felt we thoroughly deserved it.”
Lakeland said keeping Town’s first clean sheet of the season was the most pleasing factor of the game.
“And just how we withstood the spells of pressure that came, because you’re always going to get that away from home in this league, and at a place like this,” he said.
“And obviously when you’re winning away from home, the onus is on the home team to come and have a go at you, and chuck the kitchen sink at you.
“There were times where they had us pinned in a bit, in both halves, they put long-throws in there, set plays, diagonal balls, but I felt to a man, we stood up to that, and I think Sam (Johnson) has only really had the one save, with his feet in the first-half, to make.
“And outside of that, the lads in-front have defended the box and the goal incredibly well.
“And the things Sam did have to do, I thought he was tremendous and showed what a very good, competent goalkeeper he is at this level.
“So, just a very good, all-round performance.”
Town have already had to rue some bad luck so far this season, which Lakeland said has helped speed up the sense of togetherness within the squad.
“All the things that have gone against us, and are still going against us because, despite winning, we’ve lost Jevon Mills to injury, but what they’ve done is probably pulled the group even closer together and made us probably that bit more resilient in a short space of time,” the Town boss said.
“You can constantly evolve resilience, but we’ve shown a lot of it in the last few days.
“We had a bad start at Braintree, where we controlled the majority of the game, missed a penalty late on and let ourselves down in moments and probably didn’t show enough desire to stop crosses and defend the box.
“We showed that in abundance on Saturday, playing with ten men, missed another penalty and had a man unfiarly dismissed.
“And then to come here, on the Tuesday night, against a good team who finished last season with good momentum and they played against ten men for an hour themselves on Saturday, and won, I think it showed real character from our players to come here and put in that type of performance and get, in my opinion, a deserved three points.
“But that’s what I expect, I expect that level of concentration, focus, competitiveness, discipline, concentration and quality.
“That’s what I expect and hopefully we can just keep on improving and seeing more of it.”
Centre-back Mills was forced off in the first-half with a dislocated shoulder.
“His shoulder came out, it’s now back in so we’ll have to see how it settles down,” Lakeland said.
On how long Mills could be out, the Halifax manager added: “I’m not certain. If we go off David Kawa, he was back in training in a couple of weeks with his elbow, but I’m not sure.”
Attacking midfielder Jay Turner-Cooke came off the bench for his debut in the win, having signed a one-year contract with an option.
“He’s a player we’ve been aware of since just before I came here,” Lakeland said.
“I felt he’d land further up the pyramid to be honest, and had opportunities, but for whatever reason, he just didn’t feel any of the offers presented to him were right.
“With us losing Flo, I felt we needed someone who had that bit of creativity and could occupy those little pockets of space between the units, get on the ball and see a pass, and be a creator and chip in with goals as well.
“So we asked him to come into training, and he’s an incredibly talented player, who has come out of the biggest clubs in England.
“You don’t stay at Newscastle United until you’re 21 if you’re not a good player.
“He trained with the first team there every day.
“We’ve seen a lot of young players, like Jay, who’ve had that knock of being let go by a massive club and maybe wonder what direction their career is going in.
“But I think he’s sensed he’ll be working with good people here, that we’ll look after him, we’ll treat him right and try to put a smile back on his face, and if we can do that, his ability is unquestionable.
“So hopefully, with all those ingredients, we can produce a really good player and help him get back to where he wants to be.”
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