Harrogate Town 1 AFC Fylde 2: Sulphurites 'deserved far more', insists Simon Weaver

The Sulphurites missed the opportunity to go top of the table as they suffered their first home defeat of the season, losing a game that they played well enough to win, by a 2-1 score-line.

Town bossed the first half, hit the woodwork through Will McGowan and should have had a penalty when Shawn McCoulsky was brought down inside the box, but did not create enough in terms of clear goal-scoring opportunities.

A change of shape meant that Fylde came into the game more after the interval, though Weaver’s men continued to probe and Josh Hmami struck the cross-bar twice in quick succession.

Indeed, Town were probably still shading the contest when they fell behind in unfortunate fashion on 79 minutes.

Tom Whelan’s strike from just outside the box took a huge deflection off Sam Dreyer to wrong-foot Luke Hutchinson, with that goal followed up by a clinical Luca Thomas finish less than five minutes later.

Fit-again Ellis Taylor did pull one back on 87 minutes having come off the substitutes’ bench to make just his second appearance in more than five months, but that was as good as it got for Harrogate.

Weaver, however, was adamant that his players were hard done by on the night.

“I might be seeing it from a biased point of view straight after the game, but I thought we were terrific,” he told BBC Radio York. “We have played far worse and won games during my time at the club.

"We deserved far more than what we got. Even their manager came up to me afterwards and said ‘what a team’.

“We pressed aggressively, a huge amount of energy went into it from the players, and there’s no shortage of ability. This is one of the better displays we have seen here in some time. But, in this game, you don’t always get what you deserve.

"The game probably did turn on a huge piece of luck. We didn’t get our penalty when Shawn was through and got hauled down. Then they hit a ricochet shot that ends up in our net.

"But, you cannot mope about things that you can’t control, and what we’ve got to do is be better in front of goal.”

Assessing the goals that Town conceded, and their inability to convert territory and pressure into clear-cut chances, Weaver added: “The first goal was a pot shot that has hit someone’s back and ricocheted hugely in their favour for a goal.

"We could have defended better for the second goal. We got a little bit stretched and could’ve dealt with that better. But credit to their lad for an exquisite finish. And that is what we missed tonight.

“I thought that we were dominant for large periods but didn’t score the goals because we didn’t get our shots off quick enough at times. It’s as simple as that.”

Defeat sees Harrogate drop from second place to fourth in the National League standings after eight rounds of fixtures.