Simon Weaver grateful to Harrogate Town's travelling fans for support during chastening loss at Mansfield Town

The Sulphurites conceded five before half-time on their way to a humiliating 9-2 loss to the title-chasing Stags, ending their six-game unbeaten run since the turn of the year.

But, despite seeing their side torn apart as the score-line progressed from comprehensive to embarrassing, 127 hardy souls continued to give their backing from the away end and stayed to applaud the visiting players off the field after the full-time whistle.

Weaver himself also received a decent reception post-match, and was quick to express his gratitude to the Harrogate faithful.

“It [the support] means a lot because I know that it is easy for people to turn their backs on a bad display,” he said.

“A team that is looking dejected doesn’t need that and we certainly didn’t get that, so we are very grateful to have a group of fans there that appreciate all the efforts that we are all putting in.

“Despite the team’s great efforts recently, you could forgive the fans for feeling upset about nine goals conceded, but I thought that they were brilliant throughout and we really appreciate that. And, so do the players, they acknowledged that in the changing room.

“We are probably in a position that people will have thought was unthinkable at the start of the season, and I think they [the fans] appreciate that.

“We have got good, intelligent fans, who know that we are trying to play a brand of football that yeah, is expansive, and maybe if we get it wrong we might get a few bloody noses along the way, but that is part of life as you try to strive for more.”

Town fell behind with 13 minutes on the clock, Lucas Akins converting from the penalty spot after Derrick Abu had been adjudged to have pulled the shirt of Bailey Cargill.

Hiram Boateng then struck in the 20th and 30th minutes to put Mansfield in full control, before Tom Nichols effectively ended the game as a contest with 11 minutes of the opening period remaining.

Worse was to come for the Sulphurites, with Davis Keillor-Dunn adding to the Stags’ tally, leaving visiting stopper James Belshaw to pick the ball out of the back of his net for the fifth time in the space of just 26 minutes.

Any notion that Nigel Clough’s men might take their foot off the gas after the interval with the match already won was quickly blown away as Boateng completed his hat-trick within four minutes of the restart.

A remarkable night of football then took another twist, with Town somehow registering twice in the space of a minute through George Thomson and Abraham Odoh, reducing the deficit slightly at 6-2.

But the Stags were not finished yet, and the score-line progressed from emphatic to embarrassing as Akins grabbed his second before substitute Will Swann’s late brace rounded off a galling evening for Harrogate.

Defeat sees Town drop out of the play-offs and slip one place to eighth, though they are level on points with Notts County in seventh.