Ryan Fallowfield believes unlucky Harrogate Town 'deserved more' at Salford City

The Sulphurites suffered a sixth defeat in eight matches when they lost Saturday's League Two clash by a 2-0 scoreline, former Leeds United striker Matt Smith netting a quick-fire brace in the second half.

Out-of-form Town shaded proceedings and certainly created the better chances on the afternoon, but fell behind on 70 minutes with goalkeeper Mark Oxley down injured, leaving the away goal unguarded.

Smith then took the game away from Simon Weaver's men with a second goal five minutes later, though right-back Fallowfield doesn't feel as if

"I think we deserved more. We had quite a lot of chances but we need to be more ruthless in front of goal as well as when we are defending ours. We've come away with another defeat but I feel like we deserved a lot more than a 2-0 loss," the ex-Hull City defender said.

"You could say that it was a foul [on Oxley] and play should have been stopped, but we've still got to defend our goal whether Ox is down or not. If they dink it in he probably comes and catches it given the area the ball went into, but then we've conceded again straight after.

"We've worked on the defensive side all week, shifting across, being narrow, keeping the right distances between the back four and the midfield four.

"First half, you could see that it worked. They had a bit more possession, but second half, I thought we had better chances and more chances and looked like the team that was going to score first, but then we concede. It has been one of those seasons where that has been happening quite often.

"Like I say, I don't think we deserved it, but we are here again."

In his own post-match reflection, Town manager Simon Weaver said that his side needed the "rub of the green", a view that Fallowfield does not disagree with given the circumstances which led to Salford taking the lead.

Town had to substitute Oxley due to the injury sustained in that incident having already lost Calum Kavanagh to a dreadful challenge from behind by Jason Lowe earlier in the second half.

And, while Luke Armstrong and Kavanagh both failed to finish off decent opportunities, Armstrong also saw an effort hit the inside of the post and bounce out, in contrast to Smith's second of the afternoon, which struck the woodwork but then crossed the goal-line.

Fallowfield did however insist that he and his team-mates cannot hide behind such excuses.

"That's the luck we are having at the moment," the 26-year-old added.

"That's the difference when Luke Armstrong hits the post while their kid swings his leg at it, hardly even hits it properly then it hits the post, rolls across the line and goes in.

"Our striker, it hits the post, nearly hits the other post and it doesn't go in. It's just the luck we are having, but there's no excuses, we're not winning games, so you can't always just say it's not going for us.

"I know we beat Scunthorpe not so long ago, but that's the run we are on and we have got to try and get out of it.

"It's proving difficult because we are not winning games, but we will always stick together and try and win games."

Now approaching the end of his fifth full season at Wetherby Road, Fallowfield has been in and out of Weaver's starting XI this term, though he has played in all of Town's last 11 matches, starting 10 of them.

And while he admits that he is pleased on a personal level to be getting plenty of minutes, he says that the fact that Town have won just two matches during that period means that he hasn't been enjoying his football as much as he might.

"Obviously everyone wants to win games of football, that's the aim," he continued.

"So, it is enjoyable being in the team, but not so enjoyable when you're not winning, so we've just got to keep going and try and win the next one."