Harrogate Town 1 Colchester United 3: Simon Weaver blames 'soft' defensive display for dismal defeat

The Sulphurites conceded twice inside the opening 17 minutes on their way to a 3-1 home loss to their fellow strugglers, missing out on the chance to pull nine points clear of the League Two relegation zone.

It was all too easy for John Akinde and Noah Chilvers to put the visitors in full control, before Junior Tchamadeu effectively ended the game as a contest early in the second half.

Luke Armstrong did pull one back late on, netting his seventh goal in six league appearances, but that was as good as it got for an off-colour Town side, who can have no real complaints about the outcome of the contest.

"I’m not happy at all. I couldn’t see that defensive performance coming. To be two down after 17 minutes is absolutely shocking. They were awful, awful, dreadful goals.

"They were too soft for any level. I’m not going to name names, but you can pick whatever system you want, but two boom balls down the middle, you don’t handle that, you don’t find a way of dealing with the first or the second ball, you’re going to put yourself at risk of conceding.

"We worked on video analysis all week. It's not rocket science. You need to compete and we didn’t defensively.

"There weren’t enough who competed well enough, aerially or physically. We know that we have got Joe Mattock and Kyle Ferguson out, who are big lads brought into do that, but you don’t have to be the biggest to compete for the second ball and read the game.

"It’s not me trying to undermine the confidence of anyone but I hate losing and I hate us being labelled flaky, which undoubtedly we should be called after today."

Town’s defensive woes centred around their inability to deal with the physicality of Colchester target-man Akinde, scorer of Colchester’s opener and a menacing presence throughout the afternoon.

And Weaver was left particularly frustrated by his centre-halves’ failings in what he insisted was always going to be a key battle.

"There has got to be enough passion and willpower to find a way against the likes of John Akinde,” the Town boss added.

"I don’t mean any disrespect to Colchester, but they are a direct team and they’ll put it forward to Akinde. You need to compete.

"You can do all the video analysis and have all the tacticians out there saying ‘you shouldn’t have played a different system’, but one long ball down the middle, whether you play five at the back, six at the back, 10 at the back, if you lose that, then lose the second ball, then you are inviting trouble.”

It wasn’t just Town’s defensive failings which irked Weaver, who was also left disappointed by a lack of intensity across the board when his team didn’t have the ball.

The Sulphurites camp has been contending with widespread illness in recent weeks, but the Harrogate chief doesn’t believe that the after-effects of that sickness bug can be used as any kind of an excuse.

"Chasing things down, that’s what we’ve been known for, as much as anything intricate,” he continued.

"We’ve been known for relentless running and I thought a couple looked like they were suffering the sniffles today and needed to have a hot water bottle and sit out, which is soft.

"We are relentless off the pitch, we have to match that on it.

"Maybe after 60 minutes after the two previous games you could see it, but there shouldn’t have been a lack of energy in the first 15 minutes and the game becomes incredibly hard when you’ve gifted them two goals by quarter past three.”

Town remain 19th in the League Two standings following Saturday’s defeat, but only stay ahead of Colchester by virtue of having scored more goals.

Elsehwere, second-from-bottom Rochdale’s draw with Newport County means that the gap to the relegation zone has now been cut to six points.