Harrogate Town 0 Salford City 2: Simon Weaver 'not in denial' about seriousness of Sulphurites' plight

New Year’s Day’s result means that the Sulphurites have now lost six of their last seven League Two matches, and taken just one point from the last 21 on offer.

And that sequence of results has seen them plummet to 22nd place in the table, where they sit just two points above the relegation zone.

Already missing a number of key players through injury, Town’s cause was not aided by the absence of centre-half Jasper Moon due to illness, and left-back Matty Foulds, who pulled his groin during Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Fleetwood.

But, despite playing some tidy football at times, Harrogate just never looked capable of hurting their visitors and ultimately served up the kind of predictably underwhelming performance that has become the norm over the last month.

And Weaver says that he is all too aware that his team is not performing to the required standard.

"We are having to scrap just to be in games at the minute,” he said. “We are not getting smashed off the face of the earth, but all in all, we are just short of quality at the moment.

"It’s quality and confidence. I’m not going to be in denial, we need more out of the players. But they are good lads and it is about people in a difficult situation rising to the challenge of continually getting better.

"It’s a constant grind, and the acid test is trying to get them better and more reliable when we are in a moment of adversity, which is ultimately down to me.

"There is no point in focusing on the negatives about the group, we know that we have got nine players out – and it’s there for everyone to see. We just need to keep the team upbeat enough to keep going, that’s what we need to do right now.”

Salford arrived in North Yorkshire on a run of four consecutive victories and looked the better side – and carried the greater threat – throughout Wednesday’s contest

Their first effort of note came from the boot of Cole Stockton, whose first-time strike from outside the box flew narrowly wide of the post, before Stephan’s Negru looping header from a right-wing corner bounced back off the Harrogate cross-bar.

Jon Taylor then took aim from distance and wasn’t too far away with a fizzing shot.

Town’s first decent opportunity of any note arrived following a corner, the unmarked Anthony O’Connor stabbing a wild effort high over the cross-bar after the Ammies failed to clear their lines. A horrific mix-up between Dean Cornelius and Toby Sims then led to the latter gifting Kylian Kouassi a clear run on James Belshaw’s goal, however the substitute got his finish all wrong and failed to even come close to hitting the target.

A decent sight of goal then materialised at the other end when the ball broke kindly inside the penalty area for Stephen Duke-McKenna, though he could only bend a first-time shot straight into the arms of Matty Young.

With 39 minutes on the clock, Salford eventually made the breakthrough they had been threatening.

Taylor crossed from the left and O’Connor’s attempted clearance went straight up in the air, allowing Haji Mnoga to nod the ball down for Stockton to volley past Belshaw from close range.

Trailing at the interval, Town switched from a three-man defence to a back four, and the early stages of the second half saw them engineer a number of useful attacking situations without managing to ask any real questions of the visiting defence.

The stuffing was then well-and-truly knocked out of Weaver’s men in the 56th minute as City doubled their lead out of nothing.

Goalkeeper Young launched a free-kick from deep inside his own half high into the air, and it was all too easy for Stockton to chest the ball into the path of Matty Lund, who sent a first-time strike into the bottom corner of the net from just over 20 yards out.

Extremely comfortable with a two-goal cushion to their name, Salford could have added to their tally during the latter stages, Tyrese Fornah seeing one clean and one deflected effort tipped over the bar by Belshaw.

Reflecting on the contest as a whole, Weaver pointed to the pedigree of the Ammies’ attacking players and the cutting edge they displayed in the final third as being the difference between the teams.

"It was a typical game against Salford where there’s not much between the sides to start with,” he said. “I thought that we actually started quite brightly, but the extra physicality at their disposal made a difference in the box for the first goal.

"They get paid the big bucks, these kind of players, and their quality shines through in tight matches.

"And it did today with Stockton up front, scoring that poacher’s goal in the first half when we were right in the game. Then, second half, Lund, who is an incredible number eight for this level, gets on the end of things.”

On the failings of his own side as an attacking force, Weaver said: "We went for broke at half-time, and it worked well, but whatever system you play, you have got to be good enough to pull the trigger and basically deliver in the final third.

"I thought that we looked powder-puff in front of goal. I thought that there were moments in the first half, but it’s about the final third where the quality shines and they shone brighter than we did in key moments."