‘The desire wasn’t there’ admits Harrogate Town boss

The Sulphurites find themselves nine points shy of League Two’s final play-off berth following a 1-0 home reverse at the hands of the Shrimps.

Having fallen behind to a Carlos Mendes-Gomes goal which arrived within 60 seconds of kick-off, Harrogate created plenty of decent opportunities, but were unable to force a way back into the contest.

Aaron Martin was off-taret with three close-range headers and Jack Muldoon also nodded against the upright just moments after Nathaniel Knight-Percival’s 75th-minute dismissal.

But, despite his side playing against 10 men for more than a quarter-of-an-hour, Weaver admitted that he never really felt like an equaliser was on the cards.

“Our pitch is not conducive to a fast-flowing game, it’s a battle of both boxes on here and Morecambe were better than us in those areas,” the Town chief said.

“We had 17 balls into the box in the first half, some of which were very useful deliveries, but we weren’t aggressive enough and didn’t have that killer instinct.

“The desire wasn’t there. We’ve got to win the first ball. We lacked edge, which really winds me up, to be honest.

“Even when they went down to 10 men, the players didn’t give me much confidence that an equaliser was coming.”

Harrogate Town: Belshaw; Fallowfield, Smith, Hall, Jones; Power, Thomson, Falkingham, McPake (Kiernan 87); Martin (Beck 75), Muldoon. Unused substitutes: Minter, Burrell, Francis, Williams.

Morecambe: Letheren; Mellor, Knight-Percival, Davis, Gibson; Wildig, Kenyon, Diagouraga; O’Sullivan, Stockton (Cooney 79), Mendes-Gomes (McAlinden 82). Unused substitutes: Halstead, Pringle, Denny, Price.

Referee: J Smith (Lincolnshire).

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