Bury FC 1 Harrogate Town 1: Simon Weaver 'pleased' to still be in 'difficult' tie and avoid FA Cup upset
Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver admitted that he was “pleased” to still be in the draw for the first round of the FA Cup after his side were held by Bury on Saturday afternoon.
The Sulphurites, who are flying high in the National League, ultimately did well to negotiate a challenging second 45 minutes at Gigg Lane to set up a replay on home soil on Tuesday evening.
Town may play their football two divisions higher than the Shakers, and they looked the better side during the opening half.
But, after Ciaran McGuckin’s stunning 39th-minute opener was cancelled out almost immediately by Kai Evans, Bury grew into the fourth qualifying round tie and, in front of a crowd just shy of 5,000, asked real questions of their visitors.
Although they created a couple of good opportunities of their own to settle matters, Harrogate had plenty of defending to do during the latter stages and were indebted to goalkeeper Luke Hutchinson for one superb save from the lively Evans.
Weaver, however, insisted that a Bury team who have been in scintillating form at home this season were never going to be any kind of a pushover.
“I am pleased that we are still in the tie,” he told BBC Radio York. “There will be upsets up and down the country in the FA Cup as there are every year, where the favourites come unstuck because they don’t put games to bed when in dominant moments.
“It was following that trend today in terms of us making a great start, being really in control, dominant, creating chances and scoring one great individual goal through Ciaran.
“Then, before you know it, Bury have basically scored direct from a corner and the whole crowd were reinvigorated. And, from that point onwards, they were invigorated and it was a tough game for us.
“Fair play to Bury, they dug deep and then took their opportunity second half to really have a good go at us. They have got some good players and we were never going to take this game lightly. The longer they were in the game, the more the pressure grew on us.
“There are many League Two clubs that beat Championship clubs. You’ve seen that kind of thing many times. Bury are a good team, and we respect the game of football enough to know that ties such as this are difficult.”
Saturday’s FA Cup clash was the first game that Weaver has overseen in his new dual role of manager and owner since it was confirmed that he and Jonathan Blezard had taken control of Town, following Irving Weaver’s decision to sell his shares in the club after 15 years as majority shareholder.