Harrogate Town 1 Crawley Town 2: 'Tentative' Sulphurites' poor run of form continues

Saturday saw the Sulphurites beaten 2-1 at Wetherby Road by Crawley after they failed to build on George Thomson’s excellent first-half opener, going on to concede twice in the space of eight minutes after the break.

That loss was their third on the bounce on home soil and means that they are now winless in the six matches they have played following a 1-0 success over Colchester United on February 10 which saw them claim seventh spot.

A return of just two points from the last 18 on offer has seen Town slide all the way down to 14th position and has left manager Simon Weaver scratching his head and questioning his players’ mindset.

“It's hard to fathom right now,” he said. “People went protective and maybe it's a sign. It's a little bit nice at times.

"I thought when we brought Thommo [Thomson] more central for the last five minutes, suddenly he's winning headers, he's getting seconds. He's one who I have to say was standing out from the crowd.

"The chance he got, it wasn't a chance, it was just a fantastic goal. But he's playing with bite. He believes we're good enough. He believes he's good enough to fire us into the play-offs. But there were a few that were going ‘please just get the game over and done with so we've got a win.’

"And you don't get a win by doing that. You've got to confront your fears and if we come up short because of ability, then fine, but don't come short by being tentative. And that's what we were."

Weaver went on to say that while he is certain that he has got a dressing room full of good characters, that Saturday’s defeat has made him question whether there's enough “devilment” within his squad.

"Listen, as characters are, you know, they’re lovely lads,” the Town boss added. “You'd introduce them to your family and be proud.

"But it’s not just about being good lads. It's, have they got a bit of devilment when it comes to it, you know, when you’re smelling blood? Not just having a good time when you're on top, taking 20 points from 10 games.

“What about the next 10 games, you know, when we're trying to scrap for a point, are you willing to do that side of it and lay a glove? Pick up a yellow just to disrupt the momentum within a game?

"We try to say the right things. I'm not saying we do say the right things all the time, but, we're trying to build up the confidence levels again by just doing those incremental gains, winning the seconds, being gritty, being hard to beat.

“But, we had enough numbers back there for the two goals they scored, however everyone's waiting for each other to actually lay a glove and they just walk past us for their two goals.”

The first half of Saturday’s contest was fairly dull until Town took the lead on 26 minutes when Thomson fired home a fine finish from just outside the penalty area with his weaker left foot.

Although they hadn’t looked great before edging ahead, the hosts finished the half strongly, with Matty Daly and Dean Cornelius both drawing excellent saves from Crawley stopper Corey Addai.

At the other end, James Belshaw was required to make one superb acrobatic stop to keep out Harry Forster’s goal-bound effort, though the second half began with Town continuing to look the more likely.

Daly and Thomson again tested Addai with rather unconvincing strikes from decent positions, before Forster curled one wide as the Red Devils suddenly began to show some signs of life.

And they were level on 58 minutes after some unconvincing defensive work enabled Forster to force a scruffy close-range finish beyond Belshaw.

Harrogate substitute Josh March then set up Jack Muldoon, but again the strike at goal was too close to Addai, and the Sulphurites were punished for their lack of clinical edge in the 66th minute.

Klaidi Lolos was given space to flick the ball over marker Anthony O’Connor then rifle the sweetest of shots past Belshaw and into the corner of the net.

Another chance went begging on 70 minutes, Thomson delivering an inviting free-kick from the right that neither March nor O’Connor could get on the end of, despite having the gaping goal at their mercy.

Forced to throw caution to the wind by this stage, Town were lucky not to concede a third goal during the closing stages, with Crawley opening them up on a number of occasions.

Nick Tsaroulla missed one big chance, while Adam Campbell rattled the cross-bar, though at the opposite end of the field, a late equaliser never really looked like materialising.