SIMON WEAVER claimed that Harrogate Town could have beaten Crawley Town “comfortably” on “another day” after their latest League Two defeat down in Sussex.

Bottom of the table and now five points from the safety, the struggling Sulphurites saw their embarrassing winless run extended into a 19th game by goals in each half from Max Anderson and Josh Flint.

But the visitors did begin brightly at Broadfield, and enjoyed decent spells in the game without managing to capitalise, leaving Weaver to insist after the final whistle that his side actually performed better than the score-line suggests.

"It was just a case of missing chances,” Weaver told BBC Radio York. “On another day, we come away from here having won the game comfortably.

STILL WAITING: Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

placeholder image — STILL WAITING: Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

“We didn’t get the result that we wanted, but I can’t help but feel that there were a lot of good individual performances out there. We played some of the best stuff that we have done for months.

"It was a tale of both boxes, really. We have got to start scoring the opportunities that we are now creating. We have had a long barren spell of not being creative enough, but it is not the case now.

“We are hurting good teams, we hurt Crawley today, but really you have got to kill them off when you are in the driving seat and flowing like we were during large parts of the game.

"And, in our box, we have got to sense danger that bit quicker. And that is something that is cropping up time and time again. We have got to have a heightened sense of alertness in those emergency defensive situations.”

Town’s cause was not aided by the loss of another two players to injury, with goalkeeper Mark Oxley and centre-half Chanse Headman forced off after just half an hour.

"We seem to accrue injuries every game – there were two more today, and we have now got to find a new goalkeeper in the space of two days,” he said.

"There’s no chance of Ox playing for a while because he said that his calf popped, I think that was from the shot where Crawley scored.

"Chanse has got a swollen ankle and has a boot on at the minute. But, he is a bit of a warrior, which great because at 20 years of age, there’s not many of them around.

"He was excellent while he was on the pitch, and we hope that he is going to be okay.”

Crawley Town: Chapman, Barker, Vassell, Flint, Gordon (Forster 76), Williams (Pereira 87), Anderson (Bajrami 46), Russell (L Richards 67), T Richards (McKirdy 67), Darcy, Orsi-Dadomo. Unused substitutes: Wollacott, Odimayo.

Harrogate Town: Oxley (H Gray 31), Headman (Cass 32), Heffernan, Gibson, Slater, Morris, Evans, Marsh (Thomson 68), Smith (McAleny 75), Emmerson Sutton, Acquah (Muldoon 75). Unused substitutes: Horton, Falkingham.

Referee: Tom Reeves (Birmingham).