Harrogate Town show their mental strength during comeback at top-of-the-table Leyton Orient

Just four days after doing the same against AFC Wimbledon, the Sulphurites showed huge character to salvage what looked the most unlikely of draws at the halfway stage of Easter Monday’s League Two clash.

Ruel Sotiriou’s first-half brace had put the runaway leaders on course for another victory, however Anthony O’Connor and George Thomson struck in the space of three minutes to restore parity.

And Weaver said he was “proud” that Town managed to find it within themselves to launch another recovery mission in their bid to beat the drop.

"It’s a big point for us,” the Harrogate chief reflected.

"It just shows you, that if you stay in it, even at 2-0, you can flip it on its head. But, you need strong minds to do that and the players have shown strength of character.

"It’s horrific to live through for the 90 minutes but it’s also heart-warming and gives us belief. At least we can get a reaction from them.

"We are excited that the lads believe and can go out there and forget the noise – and they did that second half.

"I’m very proud of how we managed having got it back to 2-2. I thought that we might need a third to pick up a point because they are so dangerous aren’t they, but we stifled them a little bit better.”

Town were thoroughly second best during the opening 45, failing to register a shot at goal as Orient bossed proceedings.

Thus, Weaver felt compelled to deliver some harsh words during the half-time interval, words which he was pleased to see went some way to inspiring a positive reaction.

“We were awful in the first half,” he added.

"We worked on how to stop them but we weren’t good enough to stop them and we looked a little bit short on energy and belief, which was frustrating because we scored two goals in the last 10 minutes of football in the previous game.

"We were well short. There wasn’t the fire in the belly, or that’s how it came across. We were chasing shadows.

"We looked like we were there to be beaten. We came in at half-time, re-jigged it a bit, there were a few stern words, but we got a heck of a reaction second half and I was proud of the efforts and in the end we could have ended up winning it.

"It was a night and day performance.”

Monday’s result sees Town drop one place to 21st in the League Two standings, though they remain two points clear of the relegation zone and still hold a game in hand on all of the sides beneath them.