Harrogate Town must stop letting intensity levels drop after a victory, demands Simon Weaver

The Sulphurites have generally been pretty good when it has come to showing a reaction to their worst displays and heaviest defeats so far this season.

However, they have plenty of previous during 2024/25 for failing to back up their better performances and results, and have struggled to string together consecutive wins throughout the campaign.

At Newport County on Saturday, Town kicked off the game having taken seven points from a possible nine on offer and in arguably as good a place as they’ve been this season, having opened up an 11-point gap to the League Two relegation zone.

But, they fell behind with just two minutes on the clock and then conceded a second goal less than a quarter of an hour into the contest as Weaver - not for the first time - witnessed a significant drop-off following the “ecstasy” of their dramatic late victory over Carlisle in their previous outing.

It was a similar story away at Bromley a couple of weeks earlier, with Harrogate seemingly taking their foot off the gas having just enjoyed a fine result against Swindon.

Earlier in the campaign, some of their stand-out successes - against Doncaster, Bradford and League One Wrexham in the FA Cup - were all followed up with dismal defeats.

So, having identified this lack of consistency and inability to kick on when they start to generate some positive momentum, Weaver has stressed that now is the time that his players adopt a different mindset and keep striving for more.

“Our lads sometimes get softened up by a win,” he said. “Our reaction to defeats are good. Our reaction to wins, sometimes there is a little bit of a lack of intensity, which there was in those two instances which gave Newport a leg up in the first half on Saturday.

"We are not the free-flowing side that regularly comes back from 2-0 down. So that is something that we have got to look at and aim to improve.

"Our lads kept on going, but the intensity in the big moments was short, and it has cost us.

"We win as a team and we lose as a team and the lads were hurting in the changing room, but we have got to try to be more consistent in all aspects and strive for that.

"From our perspective, we had the ecstasy of the last-minute winner last week, and you hope that there isn’t a softening up, but then you’re 1-0 down after two minutes and it’s a bit of a sickener.”