Harrogate Town 0 Oldham Athletic 1: Simon Weaver left to rue early misses and 'lack of quality' in final third

The Sulphurites suffered a sixth consecutive loss on Saturday as Latics defender Manny Monthe netted the only goal of the game midway through the first half.

That defeat was Town’s fifth on the bounce in the league and saw them drop to 21st place, where they now sit just a single point above the relegation zone.

But, Weaver believes that things could easily have played out very differently at Wetherby Road.

"I thought that we deserved something from the game,” he said. "We could have scored a couple of goals in the first five or six minutes, and then it’s a different story.

"If we score early with one of the chances that we had then I feel we could have put Oldham to the sword. I thought that there was a lot of indecision in their back-line because of the movement of our front players and their physicality.

"I thought that we switched the play a lot better on Saturday. We got the widemen out there, we got the opposite full-back out, there was just a little bit of a lack of quality in terms of the finishing power.

"We were back to supplying good balls into the box from out wide. But one of them has to go in.

"We need to start scoring goals at home, and today we just didn’t have that moment of quality to break the deadlock, or maybe a late equaliser and then push for the win.”

Town did indeed have a glorious opportunity to get themselves off to the ideal start to proceedings.

Striker Shawn McCoulsky, making his first start since early September following his recovery from a thigh injury, dragged badly wide of the mark having been played through on goal by Jack Muldoon with just five minutes on the clock.

The former Maidenhead forward then fired over the cross-bar as another opening presented itself soon afterwards, while Stephen Duke-McKenna showed some neat footwork to open Oldham up before he also managed to miss the target.

Harrogate were made to pay for not capitalising on their bright start when the Latics took the lead on 23 minutes.

Jamie Robson swung a right-wing corner into the Sulphurites’ six-yard box, and after the home defence failed to adequately clear their lines, Monthe was able to hook a first-time effort into the far corner.

Town goalkeeper Mark Oxley was then required to stop Oli Hammond from bundling the ball over the line after another Robson delivery was diverted into his path.

Things appeared to have got even worse for the hosts in the 33rd minute, though Joe Garner’s close-range header was ruled out for offside.

There was another let-off for Harrogate early in the second half when Warren Burrell’s poor back-pass enabled Michael Mellon to take the ball past Oxley and run towards an open goal, only for Bobby Faulkner to save the day with a superb covering challenge.

Play quickly switched to the other end of the field and Town came within inches of levelling matters on 59 minutes.

Ellis Taylor cut inside off the right flank and unleashed a swerving, left-footed strike which thudded against the cross-bar via the fingertips of Matt Hudson.

Bryn Morris was next to threaten for Weaver’s team, taking aim from distance and seeing his well-struck, low shot gathered by Hudson at the second attempt.

Oldham’s Ryan Woods was then sent off for a second bookable offence with 10 minutes of normal time remaining, and Town really began to turn the screw during the closing stages.

Hudson produced another fine stop to thwart Muldoon from close range, while Donervon Daniels came up with a huge block to keep a McCoulsky blast out of the back of his net.

But, there was to be no late salvation for Harrogate, leaving Weaver to contemplate his longest losing run in his 16 years in charge of the club.