Harrogate Town 0 AFC Wimbledon 3: Wombles handled conditions better than us, admits Sulphurites boss Simon Weaver

The first 10 minutes aside, the Sulphurites were comfortably second best throughout Saturday’s League Two contest and were fortunate not to lose the game by a greater margin.

Strong winds caused by Storm Darragh swept across the Exercise Stadium, and it was the Wombles who managed to adapt more successfully to the challenge at hand.

They scored twice while playing into the wind during the first half, then completely dominated the second period when playing with it behind them, penning Town inside their own territory for long spells.

"I think that Wimbledon's physicality was better suited to the conditions and they took advantage of that,” Weaver said.

“I think that they played the conditions well. There were six-footers coming at us from all angles and it was difficult.

"We worked hard at set-pieces in training in the week, but they were better in those situations and deserved their lead at half-time because they were such a threat.

"And it changes the psyche of the team when you’re 2-0 down, it’s blowing a gale, you’ve just lost the last game and have a mountain to climb again.

“Basically, we didn’t show enough quality to break them down or have any real sustained pressure.”

Weaver labelled Town’s performance during their 2-0 loss to Salford City in their previous outing as “embarrassing”, but was able to take some solace from the fact that his players actually grafted for the full 90 minutes against Wimbledon.

"I’m disappointed and the score-line is worse, but I actually thought that in bad conditions, the lads dug in more than they did the other night,” he added.

"It’s the least that you deserve as a manager, and as a fan. We were really wounded by the lack of energy at Salford in comparison to the games preceding it.

“Today we were just beaten in key moments, two set-piece goals and a mistake.

"It’s hard to overcome a three-goal deficit when it’s so early on in the game, but at least the players stuck at it in awful conditions.”

Playing with that strong wind at their backs, the Sulphurites made a decent start to proceedings, engineering a couple of promising attacking positions inside the opening 10 minutes without managing to test Owen Goodman in the away goal.

They would however fall behind in rather unfortunate circumstances in the 12th minute. James Tilley’s free-kick was initially headed away by Toby Sims but dropped for Josh Kelly on the edge of the box and his first-time strike took an extremely unkind deflection off Sam Folarin and looped over the wrong-footed James Belshaw.

If there was a touch of bad luck about Wimbledon’s opener, their second goal arrived purely as a result of some poor defending at another set-piece.

Tilley’s 24th-minute corner from the left wasn’t dealt with and the ball diverted into the path of the unmarked John-Joe O’Toole, who nodded home from a couple of yards out.

It took until the 32nd minute for Town to threaten a response. Stephen Duke-McKenna skinned a couple of visiting players down the right wing before delivering a cross that eventually broke for James Daly, however he could only side-foot a tame effort straight at Goodman.

Another dangerous ball into the box from Duke-McKenna ought to have presented a clear sight of goal for Folarin in the 42nd minute, though he was floored by the scrambling O’Toole and referee Jacob Miles opted against blowing up for the kind of coming together that he had given as a foul in other areas of the pitch.

Trailing by two at the interval, any hopes of a second-half fight-back were quashed within five minutes of the restart as Jasper Moon made a horrendous error, passing the ball straight to Kelly in an attempt to play out from the back.

The Wimbledon number 10 sent Matty Stevens clean through on goal, and he lifted a deft finish over the advancing Belshaw to end the game as a contest.

Things could and probably should have got even worse for Harrogate just moments later when Stevens headed in Riley Harbottle’s corner from the left at the far post, however that ‘goal’ was disallowed for an apparent foul.

Unlike the home side, the Wombles took full advantage of having the wind behind them and kept Town trapped inside their own territory for the majority of the second period.

Moon had to make an excellent last-ditch block to prevent Kelly from making it 4-0, then Belshaw was forced to claw away Josh Neufville’s cross-cum-shot before dashing off his line to save from Stevens one-on-one.

The one-way traffic continued, and Belshaw had to make another good stop on 67 minutes, keeping out Tilley’s drilled effort at his near post.

Two minutes later, Town’s goalkeeper did superbly to push away Alistair Smith’s low shot from outside the box, then somehow recovered to beat Omar Bugiel to the loose ball.

During a rare foray forward by the home side, James Daly’s fine run down the left and cross created a chance for Duke-McKenna, but his sweetly-struck volley was blocked at the back post.

The Dons kept coming, Neufville cutting inside from the right, beating Zico Asare and clearing the cross-bar when he really ought to have found the back of the net.

Stevens was presented with another chance when Anthony O’Connor was caught in possession, though he was eventually crowded out, with Kelly the next to threaten when he shot narrowly wide from 20 yards.

The game drew to a close without the Sulphurites ever looking like pulling a goal back, with defeat seeing them drop one place to 19th in the League Two standings.