Harrogate remain five points adrift at the bottom of the Blue Square North after a 3-2 home defeat to Southport.

Dave Syers gave Town an early lead, but Steve Daly, Chris Lever and Kieran Kilheeny put Southport in charge before Josh Radcliffe's late consolation.

Town manager Simon Weaver told BBC Radio York: "Collectively we really grafted and they put a shift in for me.

"We're a difficult proposition now for teams because we look like we can score goals when we get around the area."

He added: "Southport didn't create that many chances, but if anyone made a mistake we got punished.

"What they did better than us at times was, when they scored, they got it in behind us. They did the ugly part really well and we're trying to introduce that to our game.

There remains the question of how many teams will be relegated from Blue Square North, given Chester's demise.

Overhauling Vauxhall Motors, who Town trail by five points but have four games in hand over, is paramount, but Weaver is also targeting the points tally of the Blue Square South strugglers, which might prove relevant.

"I believe the rules to be that if we finish second-from-bottom, and our points tally is higher than the Conference South third-from-bottom team, then we'll stay up."

After games against top teams, all but one of Harrogate Town's last seven fixtures are against teams with seemingly little to play for.

"We've had a hard bunch of games where we've played against top teams and we're not far off," Weaver added.

"If we learn and then play against lower-placed teams, I expect us to get solid results."

The first of those games is on Easter Monday at Hyde, who are struggling but look to be safe from the drop.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version