Victory over Doncaster Rovers caused Harrogate Town's players to get 'sloppy' ahead of Crawley Town clash

The Sulphurites pulled nine points clear of the League Two drop zone courtesy of that 2-0 success over their Yorkshire rivals, but were brought crashing back down to earth by struggling Crawley on Saturday.

Town conspired to lose 3-1 to opponents who headed into the fixture with the worst form in the division, the Red Devils having been beaten in six of their previous seven, taking just one solitary point from the last 21 on offer and failing to score in three matches.

Scott Lindsey's team would however cruised to victory down in Sussex, taking the lead with just eight minutes on the clock and never looking back from that point onwards.

And Weaver says he has to question his players' mentality after they served up a performance which he branded “wet”.

He said: "It's really surprising, but it's the reaction to a victory that we haven't had for a while and I challenged the lads 'what are you like after a win then?'

"For some of them, they hadn't had a win until Tuesday night and they've gone sloppy on it and gone nice on it.

"It's the psychology of players, getting into them the absolute drive and will. At this club, we have to keep looking for those who can be relentless with it.

"One thing we do demand is an absolute tenacity and desire to win and turn up every single game. And whether Saturday was the second blip out of nine matches, that is too many, it's too many.

"We have to have everyone on the pitch absolutely fighting for each other and at times we just looked like a wet blanket on Saturday.”

Crawley’s Aramide Oteh broke the deadlock after just eight minutes of Saturday’s contest, the same player then doubling the hosts’ advantage just before the half-time whistle.

The home tally was added to after the interval when Jordon Mutch’s 67th-minute strike ended the game as a contest, Anthony O’Connor netting a consolation goal for Harrogate deep in stoppage-time.

"We lost our battles defensively, when recently we have been looking a lot more solid," Weaver added.

"That's not what we want or where we can afford to be.

"We thought that we had forward momentum from the games preceding Doncaster and the overall performance against them was fantastic, we were purring at times in the second half and it was only a few nights ago.

"I didn't change the team, that's the thing. If I had messed around with the team or the tactics then it all comes down to my fault.

"You are allowed to be frustrated as a coach or manager sometimes if you challenge the lads to produce the same again, same energy, same desire and then within eight minutes you are 1-0 down.”

Victory for Harrogate at the weekend would have taken 12 points clear of second-from-bottom Crawley, while even a draw would have maintained a healthy nine-point gap between the sides.

But, the Red Devils’ success means they are not just six points behind Town with two games in hand.

On his team’s failure to take a huge step towards securing their Football League status for another season, Weaver added: “We've opened the door again for Crawley.

"We certainly didn't want to collapse like we did and it's a poor result for us."