Harrogate Town 0 Dover Athletic 2: We were 'boring' and 'uninspiring', says Simon Weaver

Despite coming into Saturday's fixture on the back of two positive results, the Wetherby Road outfit never really got going and were soundly-beaten in the end.

"We are disappointed. It was a flat atmosphere, it wasn't helped by a six out of 10 performance in the first half," Weaver reflected.

"I thought it was a boring day's work, an uninspiring day and we've got to get back to playing how we did in the last two games where we were courageous on the ball.

"We'll be hurting tonight and tomorrow because it means so much to us. It wasn't a horrific performance, but it was horrible.

"We haven't got whacked but I'm disappointed after the last two games because I thought we'd probably only be three points off the play-offs [with a win], however it's still early doors and we have to take each occasion to keep learning and getting better."

Weaver felt that his players' failure to stick to their game-plan in the second half was ultimately what cost them, while he also conceded that Town went "into their shells" after falling behind, rather than really pushing to get back into the contest.

"You have to keep it tight at the back because there were enough signs first half to know that we could break them down and there would be opportunities to score, so it's a game of patience," he added.

"Second half, I thought we started off on the back foot and there was no real response once we were put under a little bit of pressure and, to their credit, they [Dover] have scored a good header.

"Then, the acid test is when you're 1-0 down and I thought we were very quiet out there. That's when you need people to stand up and get us back to playing, but I was so bored second half watching us go from Belly [James Belshaw] to Becky [Mark Beck] and them [Dover] booming it back over our heads, us running back towards our own goal and not playing football.

"That's not what we train. We weren't doing the things we do in training because people go in their shells too quickly. The lads have turned down opportunities to play today. I can't put my finger on why.

"It was evenly-balanced. If you're 4-0 down, people start feeling sorry for themselves, but we weren't. It was the 80th minute, we were 1-0 down and there was plenty of time to get one or two but they out-manned us a bit.

"There were still opportunities, but what Dover did better than us was take their opportunities."