Harrogate Town 0 Crawley Town 0: Sulphurites 'weren't sharp enough in final third'

The Sulphurites saw plenty of the ball during Saturday's League Two clash at a red-hot, sun-drenched Wetherby Road, but lacked the required quality as an attacking force to find a breakthrough.

With the Red Devils happy to keep numbers behind the ball for long periods, Town enjoyed 58 per cent of possession, though they laboured at times in energy-sapping conditions.

They were too often found wanting when it came to their final ball and lacked real killer instinct on the couple of occasions they managed to fashion genuine goal-scoring opportunities.

"It's frustrating because we had most of the territory, most of the possession, we just lacked the finishing touch," Weaver reflected.

"They frustrated us at times because they had so many players behind the ball and tried to absorb the pressure. We had to shift the ball a bit quicker. When we did, we got some decent opportunities to put balls in the box, but weren't quite sharp enough in that final third.

"We desperately wanted another three points at home. It feels quite boring, but rewarding that we've got two clean-sheets at home on the bounce in the league, which is far removed from last season.

"Crawley are one of the favourites for promotion and we've dominated the game, 15 shots. But, in that final third, we have got to spark up a bit and do a bit more. We've got players who are capable of doing that, and we'll look to improve on that.

"Credit to their defenders as well, they kept a clean-sheet and had to focus throughout the game because we were on top of it for the majority."

Town certainly did not have things all their own way, however, and the fact that their one stand-out performer on the day was goalkeeper Pete Jameson tells its own story.

"He was worked more than we wanted him to be," Weaver said of the ex-York City custodian, who pulled off four good saves on what was only his fourth outing as a Football League player.

"He commanded his box so well throughout, there were a couple of punches where he had to come off his line.

"He's settled and I think he's a real leader to be fair to him."

The opening half of what was Town's third league fixture of the new campaign was a virtual non-event.

Both sides tried to pass the football in the sweltering heat, but neither of them ever really managed to build up sufficient momentum to really threaten a breakthrough.

And, with a worryingly low total of just 1,304 spectators in attendance, the lack of atmosphere, bright sunshine and slow pace of the game meant that the contest had the feel of a pre-season friendly.

Crawley’s Jack Powell cleared the cross-bar with one well-struck long-range effort and Kwesi Appiah did force home custodian Jameson to dash off his line and make himself big after he ran in behind a ragged Harrogate back-line

At the other end, Alex Pattison twice shot tamely at Corey Addai, either side of Luke Armstrong firing across the face of goal and the lurking Jaheim Headley being denied a tap-in by some alert defending from Travis Johnson.

In first-half stoppage-time, Armstrong failed to make decent contact with Matty Daly's inviting cross from the right inside the six-yard-box, allowing Addai to gather comfortably.

The second period began with Crawley's Tom Nichols linking nicely with Ashley Nadesan and testing Jameson with a curling right-footed effort from 20 yards out.

Pattison then saw a strike deflected wide, before Jameson was forced into action once again as he parried James Tilley's blast from distance.

A positive bit of play saw Harrogate debutant Kayne Ramsay burst into the away area from close to the right-hand byline and deliver a low centre, which eventually broke for substitute Jack Muldoon, whose far-post finish was blocked superbly by Addai.

Jameson then produced his best save of the match, acrobatically tipping Mazeed Ogungbo's goal-bound header to safety before Tilley nodded one against the top of the cross-bar.

On 83 minutes, an incisive Crawley counter-attack ended with James Balagizi missing the target with just Harrogate's goalkeeper to beat.

Town's clearest opening of the afternoon then came and went with stoppage-time looming, Muldoon shooting narrowly wide of the upright having been played clean through on goal by Armstrong.

Saturday's result leaves the Sulphurites 13th in the League Two standings with four points to their name from a possible nine.