Angry Harrogate Town boss Simon Weaver bares his teeth during Bromley debrief

The Sulphurites were second best from start to finish at Hayes Lane, with their manager labelling their performance “lacklustre” following a nine-match sequence during which he felt they had performed to a consistently good level.

But, having been full of praise for his players for the improvements they have made since early January, Weaver did not hold back after the full-time whistle at the weekend having deemed them to have let their standards drop.

"They've seen the teeth at half-time and at full-time,” the Harrogate chief revealed.

“People might not see me remonstrate on the sideline like some, or chasing down to the corner flag for balls and stuff like that. But, in-house, the players have certainly been told.

“We let them know that we weren’t happy at all. We were absolutely devastated with that first-half and second-half performance.

"It's not like we are just going to forgive that lacklustre performance. Everybody loses games, but it's how you lose them.

“We know what is at stake, we are in a dog-fight. There are so many reasons to be absolutely on it, but we were poor from the off, we lost our battles all over the park. We took absolutely no responsibility on the ball, and having trained well all week, that was a shock.”

Defeat for second-from-bottom Morecambe in one of Saturday's early kick-offs meant that Town took to field at Bromley safe in the knowledge that whatever happened, they would finish the weekend at least seven points clear of the League Two relegation zone.

But Weaver felt that this development had a negative impact on his players, rather than inspiring them to go out and get a result that would have lifted them 10 points above the bottom two.

"Before the game, we told the players that Morecambe had lost,” he explained.

"We thought that would lift us given the scenario that we are in, but it is almost as if that took the tension out of it - and we need tension to really motivate us.

"But that is not enough for us as a management team. We demand more, and will continue to demand more."