Harrogate Town 3 Walsall FC 0: A game we 'had to win', insists relieved Simon Weaver

Tuesday night saw the Sulphurites serve up their most complete performance at home since beating Swindon Town 3-0 on the opening day as they went on to triumph by the same score-line courtesy of goals from Sam Folarin, Kazeem Olaigbe and Alex Pattison.

The combination of their first victory in five attempts and second-from-bottom Hartlepool United’s defeat at Salford moved the Wetherby Road outfit six points clear of the drop zone and within touching distance of securing their Football League status for another season.

Had results gone the other way, then Town would have found themselves above the relegation places on goal-difference alone, and Weaver admitted that his overriding emotion at the full-time whistle was relief.

“This is a massive result,” he said. “It’s a relief really because coming into the ground tonight we knew that we had to win this one, especially having drawn with Doncaster on Saturday.

“When you want something so much, there can be tension in the air, but I actually sensed that the lads were feeling good. The warm-up was good, people were at ease with themselves and then when the game started I thought we looked a real attacking threat from the off, which filled the place with positivity.

“So all that was good, and then the early goal settles you a little bit. Because we don’t add to the tally, a little bit of that protective instinct kicks in and that led to a bit of a scruffy spell.

“But once we did get that second goal, we looked a class act at times and I told the lads that they should be proud of themselves. They’ve delivered and sent a lot of people home happy.

“But the deal isn’t sealed yet, we have still got a job to do. We’re not home and dry yet, however we’ve definitely taken a step towards it.”

Having had to fight back from 2-0 down in each of their three previous matches, the emphasis heading into Tuesday’s fixture was very much on starting better - and Town did exactly that.

They were much the quicker out of the blocks and got their noses in front with just 10 minutes on the clock as Luke Armstrong was set free down the right and delivered a low cross into the six-yard box.

Pattison didn’t make clean contact at near post, but the ball reached the onrushing Folarin at the back stick and he finished confidently from close range.

Having bossed proceedings for 39 minutes, Harrogate twice came close to being pegged back shortly before half-time as Matty Stevens lifted an effort just past the post and Brandon Comley’s header drew an excellent save from Mark Oxley at point-blank range.

But, after soaking up a bit of Walsall pressure at the start of the second period, Town doubled their advantage on 66 minutes when the ball broke for Olaigbe on the left-hand corner of the away box and he whipped a delicious right-footed finish into the top corner.

Ten minutes later, the points were made safe. Substitute Matty Daly did well to turn the ball over in midfield before driving forwards and slipping a perfectly-weighted pass to his left for the overlapping Pattison to race onto and beat Owen Evans one-on-one.

Tuesday’s result and the fact that 21st-placed Town’s goal-difference is vastly superior to second-from-bottom Hartlepool’s means that the County Durham outfit now need a mini-miracle if they are to overtake their fellow strugglers in the table.

Pools need to secure at least seven points from their last three matches of the campaign, while hoping that Harrogate fail to add more than two to their own tally during their remaining four fixtures.

Should John Askey’s team lose to 22nd-placed Crawley on Saturday then the Sulphurites are effectively safe, barring an unlikely swing in goal-difference. In the event that Pools do lose that game, one more point would be enough to mathematically guarantee that Town cannot go down.

Meanwhile a victory for Town at Northampton this weekend, or in any of their remaining games, or indeed three draws, would also be sufficient to ensure their survival unless Hartlepool manage to win all of their final trio of fixtures and score enough to bridge that significant gap in goal-difference.

Currently, United are 17 goals worse off than Weaver’s men, leaving them with a huge amount of work to do in that respect.