Josh Falkingham's injury one of the main reasons for Harrogate Town's poor showing against AFC Wimbledon

The Sulphurites were beaten 3-0 at a windswept Wetherby Road on Saturday afternoon, conceding twice before half-time and again almost immediately after the interval.

Thoroughly second best for almost the entirety of the contest, Town could easily have lost by four or five had the Wombles been more ruthless in front of goal.

Weaver conceded post-match that the visitors adapted far better to the challenging conditions caused by Storm Darragh, but also felt that losing his midfield general to injury as early as the 14th minute really had an impact on how the game played out.

"With Stephen Dooley coming out of the team, we had to change the game-plan and build it around Josh Falkingham - and then he came off after 14 minutes,” the Harrogate boss said.

"We needed to make the extra man in the middle of the park count in the 4-3-3, and that man was Falks, who is a real distributor and organiser of men, but then he went off the pitch.

"We didn’t have a Dooley or Falkingham in there to orchestrate attacks and suddenly Sam [Folarin] looked a lonely figure up front. We tried to go 4-4-2 to try and really go for it second half, but then we looked like we could concede more, so went back to 4-3-3 while still trying to be ambitious with it.

"Basically, we didn’t show enough quality to break them down or have any real sustained pressure.”

On exactly what his team missed after the 34-year-old limped off, Weaver added: "We needed his character and personality.

"He’s a bit old school, someone who you might have found 15 years ago, a Roy Keane type, who is a little general and not afraid to upset people by telling them where they should be or by demanding more.

"There is a distinct lack of that now and it is very hard to find people who will go out of their way to organise, to set people up and even goad them into action sometimes by provoking a reaction. Falks is excellent at all of that.”

Levi Sutton was brought in from the cold and handed a start in midfield alongside Falkingham, and was one of the few Town players to come out of the game with a little bit of credit.

The 27-year-old had to drop into that deeper midfield role initially occupied by Harrogate’s skipper, and Weaver felt that he acquitted himself well.

“It’s not Levi’s natural position, to be the holder, but I thought that he did that well,” the Sulphurites chief said.

"I thought that he was making the tackles. When he thundered into a couple of tackles, I thought ‘that’s more like us’.

"He played for 90 minutes having not played for a while and that’s credit to him for how he’s trained.

"He has certainly put himself in the frame for a longer run in the team with such a passionate performance. I thought that he did great.”