Harrogate Town punished for 'flimsy' and 'flaky' performance during FA Cup defeat to Hartlepool United

Simon Weaver labelled Harrogate Town’s first-half performance during Saturday’s FA Cup defeat to Hartlepool United as “flimsy” and “flaky”.
Harrogate Town were beaten 3-1 by Hartlepool United in the second round of the FA Cup. Pictures: Matt KirkhamHarrogate Town were beaten 3-1 by Hartlepool United in the second round of the FA Cup. Pictures: Matt Kirkham
Harrogate Town were beaten 3-1 by Hartlepool United in the second round of the FA Cup. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

The Sulphurites should have headed into their second-round clash at Victoria Park full of confidence having produced arguably their best performance of the season seven days earlier, however they just did not turn up on the day.

Second-best for all but the opening five minutes, Town failed to heed a number of warning shots as they conceded twice in quick succession just before the interval and had Joe Mattock sent off in the process.

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Their 10 men made more of a game of it in the second period and eventually pulled a goal back through substitute Josh Coley, but that was only after League Two’s bottom side had added their third of the afternoon.

Simon Weaver wasn't impressed by what he saw from his Harrogate Town players at Victoria Park.Simon Weaver wasn't impressed by what he saw from his Harrogate Town players at Victoria Park.
Simon Weaver wasn't impressed by what he saw from his Harrogate Town players at Victoria Park.

“One thing I said before the game is ‘it’s not just going to be a given because Hartlepool are bottom of the Football League, we have to get after them. If we are going to win, we have to play with the same intensity as last Saturday’,” Weaver reflected.

“We have to have a bit of an edge, a bit of a chip on our shoulder sometimes. We turned up for the first half like we had just been filling our faces at Betty’s.

“It was sloppy, it was a flimsy, flaky performance and that’s not what we are about. That’s not why we are here, that’s not why we beat Mansfield last week – and that’s the frustrating thing

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"I didn’t see that first-half performance coming. It was sluggish and that is frustrating because we feel like this is an opportunity missed.”

Despite there being just the one change to the starting XI which came flying out of the blocks and raced into a two-goal lead against Mansfield last Saturday, Town’s play was lacklustre for the vast majority of the first 45 minutes.

With the ball being turned over on a regular basis, Josh Umerah and Jake Hastie both went close to breaking the deadlock before Callum Cooke eventually did, blasting a 20-yard free-kick down the middle of the goal and through visiting custodian Pete Jameson, who might feel he ought to have done better.

Things got much worse for the Sulphurites in stoppage-time when Mattock was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Umerah inside the box, which saw Pools awarded a penalty that the latter converted.

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Umerah then ended the game as a contest with a powerful finish in the 71st minute before Coley took advantage of fellow substitute Sam Folarin’s clever dummy and stroked home a consolation strike.

"We are fuming in the aftermath. We made life so hard for ourselves in that first half,” Weaver added.

"I don’t think it was overly-clever play by Hartlepool. Without being disrespectful to them, they didn’t concern me too much when they had the ball. It was us giving it away in the wrong areas and making it easy for them to counter-attack when we’d dispersed the back-four.

"We were sloppy in possession. There was a developing theme where one of our defenders would get the ball and rattle it into a tight, crowded area in midfield and we weren’t executing the pass well enough. That gave them encouragement and they kept coming forwards.

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"You’ve got to win the battle when you come here. The wind blows, the crowd are against you and you don’t want to cause problems for yourselves, but that’s what we did.”

Addressing where his side went wrong in terms of their approach, Weaver added: "It was never going to be the case that we turn up here and just because they’re bottom of the Football League they don’t have any good players.

"They’ve got individuals who have played far more Football League games than a lot of our lads, so we needed to be respectful of that.

"We’re a small club at this level, we have to play with that intensity, there was a lack of intensity first half, almost a bit too relaxed. After the highs of last week it was almost as if we thought that we’re coming to Hartlepool, bottom of the Football League at the minute, we’ll just pass it our way through the thirds.

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"People will look at our videos, know our strengths and try to nullify us, so there’s a bit of game-management that was short today. You have to hit over that press or hit the diagonal to the opposite side, shift it quickly to where they haven’t got the numbers, because it was so on.

"We did it early on and it came off, we got in but didn’t execute the final bit, and too often we just lacked enough quality.”