MARK Yates has warned that his players will work hard to learn from the mistakes made in the dismal 5-1 defeat at Grays Athletic yesterday.

Harriers were comprehensively beaten in the Blue Square Premier in Essex yesterday in the club's heaviest defeat in close to two seasons.

For Yates there were no positives to draw from the game despite all it had promised by way of an improvement after such a positive end to the game at Stafford.

Despite his anger and disappointment at the showing, Yates told harriers.co.uk earlier today that drastic measures won't be needed for the fixing of what were the most fundamental errors.

"We were poor defensively and our shape was poor - we talked about building a platform to work on from the back but we won nothing," he said. "We lost our headers, tackles and everything.

"The players knew of my displeasure and we've now got to stick together and put it right, there's nothing drastically wrong but any more of those kinds of performances and there certainly will be."

The players were hauled in on what normally would have been a free day today to begin work back on the training ground.

According to the Harriers boss, that's the only way his side will get back to basics as they look to put yesterday's shambles behind them.

"We've got to move on from it - we've got to put it right and it's up to us to put it right," he continued.

"We'll be working on the training ground - we've been in this morning and we'll work again on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and will make sure performances like that one never happen again because that wasn't what I want to call my team.

Harriers looked all at sea at the back at Grays - a harsh lesson now no doubt learned for what was a young back four.

For them, Yates feels it's time to mature but the more established members of the side will also need to show dramatic improvement with a 'resolute' performance now being called for.

"We need our established, older players to stand up and be counted and we need the younger lads to grow up, mature and become men," he added.

"I've got every faith in them that we can do that and they know that performances like that are unacceptable.

"It's about how we learn from those mistakes and the players will be working doubly hard to do things right."

Harriers are next in BSP action when Stevenage Borough visit Aggborough in the first meeting between the two sides since May's FA Trophy Final.

The Manager continued: "We know we aren't out of anything with three games gone but I'm demanding a performance now, I want us to be resolute and professional and we have to make sure we're in amongst things with ten games or so gone."

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