Harrogate Town v Northampton: Simon Weaver refusing to be downcast after defeat

Manager Simon Weaver is adamant that he and his players need to “draw a line under” that disappointing 4-1 defeat to the League Two leaders and prepare to “go again” ahead of the visit of Northampton – another of the division’s high-flyers – this afternoon.

He said: “We’ve just got to forget about Tuesday and draw a line under it quickly. We can’t mope around. We’ve got to face up to it, we lost the game.

“But, I’ve said to the players ‘don’t dwell on it’. There are lessons again. Against good opposition we have been punished for errors but we move on.

“We just go again. The lads have to free up their brains in order to be able to go out and play with clarity out on the football pitch.  What we’ve got to do is show strength as a group and come out fighting against Northampton.

“The league is very tight and I’d say we’re in a great position only being seven points off Northampton, who are second.”

As disappointed as he was to end up on the wrong end of such an emphatic scoreline in midweek, Weaver insists his players can still take some positives away from their attacking display against a side who he believes are certainties to be promoted, and urged them to try and roll with the punches.

“I don’t think the confidence should take too much of a blow,” he added. “Forest Green are a very good side, as I said before the game, I think they can run away with this league.

“You’ve got to take the positives when you can. There’s negatives that you must learn from, but there were positives. We could have scored four ourselves.

“We can’t crumble after our first defeat in a while. We’ve got to keep our heads, it’s not all gonna be in a straight line, it’s not going to always be success. As I have said previously this season, I want us to be the best team in this league at bouncing back from disappointment with a positive reaction.”

Town were booed off at half-time against Forest Green, and Weaver hopes that his players will have their full backing this Saturday.

“We’ve got a really tough game against Northampton where we want the supporters to get 
behind the lads,” Weaver continued.

“We’ve let them down on Tuesday night but we’ve had some great moments recently, so hopefully we can all dust ourselves down and go again for the benefit of the club on Saturday.”