STRAIGHT TALKING: Assistant boss Neil Howarth admits an immediate improvement is needed after today's defeat.

NEIL Howarth has warned that Harriers' season could be over within the next week if the team re-produce today's performance in the games against Dagenham and Redbridge and Halifax Town.

Speaking after the 2-0 defeat to City at Aggborough, the assistant manager was all too aware that Harriers could go tumbling further down the league and out of the FA Trophy unless there isn't an immediate improvement when league-leaders Dagenham roll into Town next Tuesday.

"We've had a great run and within that run we had a couple of bad performances but managed to get a win, but if you play like this against an Exeter side that are full of confidence then we'll get beat every week.," he said.

"This is a massive part of the season for us and we're not under any illusions that we've succeeded already just because we've reached the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy and had a good run in the league.

"If we lose again on Tuesday night and then next Saturday that'd be more or less our season over.

"We've been working all week with today in mind and these games in mind and we're determined to not let the season just filter out which it could do if we don't improve our performances."

"The players are low - we wanted to bounce back after last weekend and get back on a run but today's performance wasn't good enough, either individually or as a team."

Advertisement
------------------------------------------