Harrogate Town 'missed Stephen Dooley's presence' during defeat at Barrow

The Sulphurites went down 1-0 in Cumbria on Saturday afternoon, Josh Gordon netting the only goal of the game in fortuitous fashion just before half-time when his left-wing cross took a deflection and looped inside Pete Jameson’s far post.

But the visitors failed to muster anything resembling an attempt to get back into the contest until the 85th minute, much to the annoyance of their manager.

And Weaver believes that the absence of 30-year-old Dooley, who hurt his groin during last week’s win at Gillingham, was one of the reasons why Town were so poor both in the middle of the park and as an attacking force.

"There was a failure on our part to come to the party,” the Harrogate chief said.

“We didn’t take responsibility on the ball. There was that side of the game, but also the other side, in midfield, we didn’t win enough first balls, second balls and we didn’t show composure.

"We missed Stephen Dooley’s presence in there, in the heat of the battle, getting hold of the ball and passing it.

"Until Lewis Richards came on, and Tyler Frost on the left-hand side, we didn’t take responsibility on the ball, we didn’t get balls in the box until the last minutes, when we created proper chances.

"Lewis Richards got the ball, passed it simple and we caused them problems straight away, but you have to have courage to do that because you might give it away sometimes -and we’re fine with that.”

Dooley had to be substituted in the 63rd minute of last Tuesday’s 2-0 success over the Gills due to a groin niggle.

But Weaver is hopeful that by resting him at Barrow, the former Rochdale midfield will be back in action sooner rather than later.

“He’s sore in his groin, very tender indeed,”

"It would have been too much of a risk, we could have been without him for months if we had played him on Saturday.

"I’d rather leave him out for one game and the lad get himself right, than risk him potentially doing himself some serious damage and then he’s out for the long term.

"Hopefully it will die down. If it hasn’t settled over the weekend, he will go for a scan."

Saturday’s loss was Harrogate’s second in five League Two outings this term and sees them drop four places to 12th in the table.

Reflecting on the result, Weaver added: “There was a bit of anger shown in the changing room, because we have wasted our supporters’ time for 80 minutes and our own time because we so wanted to build on that fantastic win in midweek.

"Football is sometimes about risk and reward and at 1-0 down, don’t wait until the last 10 minutes. It was too cagey until then. You’re creating two or three chances instead of the seven, eight, nine we created the other night.

“We didn’t do enough."