Harrogate Town boss Simon Weaver has revealed he was proud of the way his players performed on Sunday, as they put an end to their poor form with a 1-1 draw away at Fleetwood Town.
Town went into this one on a five game losing streak and were behind after two minutes in Lanchashire, when defender James Bolton put the hosts infont. However despite being under pressure for large periods of the game, Josh March’s eight minute equaliser was enough tto earn a share of the spoils to bring the visitors four points clear of the relegation zone.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Weaver was keen to say how proud he was of his players’ performance:
“But today was about stopping the rot and I’m proud of my players. We know that Fleetwood are a lively, youthful team and you look at the credentials of their midfield, there’s a lot of League One games between them, they were in League One last year.
“It was all about resilience today and showing that we can bounce back. Big players come with big moments and that’s what happened with Belly (Belshaw). We’re down to the bare bones but we stick together.
“You learn a lot about people when you’re up against it and the odds are against you but we like to prove people wrong by sticking together and it’s about pals bailing out other pals if something goes wrong in a game. A point was the least we deserved.”
Fleetwood had 19 efforts on goal and squandered a huge chance to snatch victory at the death, but Phoenix Patterson saw his stoppage-time penalty saved by visiting Keeper James Belshaw. Weaver was visibly delighted with the way in which his side were able to hold on to the point despite a challenging finish to the game:
“I thought the point was the least we deserved,” he said.
“With a penalty in the last few minutes and with the run we’ve been on, it would have been bitterly disappointing to have lost a game that I thought we performed well in“
“In the last three games now, I think we’ve shown up well against tough opponents and we’re showing that we’re trying to do things the right way, trying to pass the ball and play our way through and, at times we did create some good opportunities that, with a bit more confidence, we normally dispatch.”
Writers View
On paper, you could definitely argue that Fleetwood Town had the chances to steal all three points in this one, but Harrogate Town needed a bit of luck to go their way at some point, after such a disappointing run of form following a decent start to the season.
They host in-form Salford City on New Year’s Day and travel to Barrow next week, all before that mouthwatering FA Cup trip to local rivals Leeds United, and they will hope to go into that one with a few more points under their belt in the league.
