Morecambe FC v Harrogate Town: Simon Weaver wants players be 'braver on the ball'

The Sulphurites go in search of what would be just a second League Two triumph in 10 attempts and their manager has outlined exactly what he expects to see at the Mazuma Stadium.

“We need to go there and start fast, like we so often do when we are on it, and I’m looking for the players to back themselves when they are in possession,” Weaver said.

“I want them to be braver on the ball. We need more time on it to be able to dominate games the way we want to. So, we need to be better in possession.

“And, in and around the box we have to do more. That will make the difference. There have been games where we have done well between the boxes and not got the points to show for it, so it’s very important that when we get into positions to hurt Morecambe that we take advantage.

“We must pick the right passes and get our shots off.

“That said, we know we can’t be too gung-ho. The defensive shape was much better against Forest Green and we have to look to be more solid on a more consistent basis.

“We need allof these things to come together on Saturday.”

The Town chief cited fatigue as the main contributing factor to his side’s 5-2 thrashing by Scunthorpe last week, and although he was pleased by the response against Forest Green Rovers at the weekend, he said that having seven days to prepare for Saturday’s trip to Morecambe was a big positive.

“We put so much into the Mansfield and Blackpool games that we just ran out of juice against a refreshed Scunthorpe team who came into that game off the back of a week without a fixture,” Weaver added.

“I could see early on that the tank was empty, so even though I thought we played well on Saturday, having no midweek match was great.

“We’ve given the lads a few days off and they’ve been able to re-charge the batteries. They came back and trained on Tuesday and looked very sharp.

"We are expecting a performance full of energy from them at the weekend."