REDDITCH United boss Tim Harris has called for a greater strength of character from his players after the team continued their bad away form with another defeat.

The Reds went down 3-0 to Bishop’s Stortford on Saturday, and the manager has called out his side for a poor second half showing.

Harris said: “Our first half performance was excellent, but we just didn’t finish them off when we had opportunities.

“We created numerous chances and their keeper made some great saves, but we couldn’t find the net and got punished from a mistake in the second half.

“From that point our heads seemed to drop and our confidence went, but confidence is such a big part of the game.

“Some of the players are lacking a strength of character. When things start to go against you, you need people who will roll up their sleeves and dig in.

“At the moment we don’t have those players who will roll up their sleeves. None of them gave up, but they just need to show a bit more resolve.”

With the transfer window closing next week, Harris needs to get his work done quickly if he hopes to bring in any new faces to the squad.

He added: “We’re at the point in the season where we can’t go up and we can’t go down, but we’re trying to build and get better players in.

“There is a lot at this football club that needs changing – on and off the pitch – and the bar needs to be raised by everybody, otherwise we won’t move forward.”

Harris is hoping his side can turn around their away fortunes when they head to bottom-of-the-table Gosport Borough on Saturday.

He said: “Our away form has been disappointing, but there has been no problem whatsoever with our home form.

“I think we’re too comfortable playing on the carpet at the TRICO, so when we have to go away to boggy, muddy pitches we suffer.

“We beat Gosport 4-2 at home a few weeks ago, but their results have picked up of late so they’ll be a very tough team to beat. But it will be a good test for us to try and put this disappointing away form to bed.”