Harrogate Town shouldn't be looking over their shoulder at League Two drop zone, insists Joe Mattock

The Sulphurites saw their recent three-game winning streak ended by Bradford City on Thursday evening, but they remain 19th in the table and seven points clear of the bottom two.

They travel to 21st-placed Hartlepool United on New Year’s Day and, according to their former England Under-21 defender, will do so in positive frame of mind and focused on recording a fourth victory in five matches, rather than worrying about the gap between themselves and the bottom two.

“We’re not even thinking about how many points that gap is,” Mattock told the Harrogate Advertiser.

"We’re not thinking about being down in the drop zone. We know that we are a miles better team than that and we have proved that in recent weeks.

"I think that if we keep pushing the way that we have been pushing then you’re going to see a lot more positive stuff from us and we will keep bouncing up that table.

"All we are doing is taking it game by game. This time of year is always tough, it is tough on the legs, it’s tough on the mind. But the spirit in the team is good and confidence is high.

"It is a little bit of a shame that in the second half at Bradford we didn’t really look like the same team, but we are not going to get too down about it, we move on. We’ve got to recover well, come back in with smiles on our faces and get ready to try and beat Hartlepool."

Town’s recent resurgence was ended at Bradford in midweek by a Tyreik Wright goal which arrived within 60 seconds of the game kicking off.

And Mattock and his team-mates never really threatened to get themselves back into the contest, failing to reach the heights which they have hit during their three previous League Two outings.

Ravaged by injury and forced to field a number of players who have been suffering with illness, the Sulphurites looked jaded in the second half, but the vastly-experienced 32-year-old didn’t feel there was too much wrong with their overall display.

"Apart from the goal, there wasn’t really anything in it,” Mattock added.

“I thought that we did well in the first half. Obviously it is always disappointing to concede an early goal, it kind of caught us by surprise.

"But the main thing was the reaction. Straight away, we looked good. We were getting on the ball, passing it and then we created some decent chances in the second half.

"We were all celebrating at the back when Luke [Armstrong] forced that really good save out of their keeper – we all thought that was in.

"But then I just think we ran out of steam, we just weren’t really the same team by the end of the second half.”

Sunday’s clash between Hartlepool and Harrogate gets underway at Victoria Park at 3pm.