Harrogate Town showed 'character' and 'resilience' during Rochdale AFC success, says 'buzzing' Simon Weaver

Luke Armstrong, right, is congratulated by his team-mates after firing Harrogate Town into a 2-1 lead against Rochdale. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

Coming off the back of a demoralising FA Cup defeat to Hartlepool United last time out, the Sulphurites traveled to Spotland missing 10 players due to fitness issues as well as the suspended Joe Mattock.

And despite suffering another early blow when they fell behind to Jake Ball’s seventh-minute opener, Town dug deep and fought back to win the match in comfortable fashion courtesy of goals from Luke Armstrong (2), George Thomson and Sam Folarin.

"There were 11 players out today, important players who have all played first-team football for us this season, so it’s no mean feat coming here and winning 4-1. These lads deserve a lot of credit,” Weaver reflected.

Simon Weaver celebrates with Harrogate Town's travelling support at Spotand.

"The pressure was definitely on today. We got a flak for understandable reasons for losing the game at Hartlepool last week and you have to take it on the chin but bounce back and show your fight, and we did that today.

“It was a real character test after seven minutes, we missed two good opportunities to score and then to concede from their second set-piece was a disappointing moment.

"It becomes a test of character and resilience and we passed that test because we kept pouring forward, created many opportunities and were the better team on the day.

"They’ve bounced back from conceding a goal after seven minutes and it shows resilience. To go from 1-0 down, they’ve probably proved a lot of people wrong today with the resilience that they’ve shown. It says a lot about the camaraderie when you have so many out and pull off a 4-1 win, so I’m buzzing about it.”

Town arrived in Greater Manchester 20th in the League Two standings, just above Rochdale and only two points clear of the relegation zone.

Had they lost, results elsewhere could have dropped them into the bottom two. But, the combination of their own victory and defeats for Colchester, Gillingham and Hartlepool mean that Weaver and his men end the day five points clear of 23rd place.

Saturday also saw the Sulphurites record their first away league success since beating Gillingham 2-0 on August 16 and chalk up consecutive League Two victories for the first time this season.

"Back-to-back league wins, it’s very big for us," Weaver added.

"I said last week that I was hoping that it wasn’t a case of one step forwards, two steps back and the Hartlepool performance [in the FA Cup] was just a blip. All teams can have a blip at all levels and basically, 10 out of the last 12 games we have been in everyone and played well in most of them.

"I said last week that I thought we had been on it in nine of the last 11 games, we haven’t won them all, but it has been coming.

"But, we had to turn it into positive results, which we have done now in terms of back-to-back wins. Nobody is getting carried away, but we are making good strides."