Harrogate Town v Morecambe FC: Simon Weaver demands another high-intensity display

On-loan Huddersfield Town midfielder Josh Austerfield is set to return to Harrogate Town's starting line-up for Tuesday night's EFL Trophy clash with Morecambe. Kick-off at Wetherby Road is at 7pm. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

The Sulphurites secured a first victory in 11 attempts at the weekend when they beat Hartlepool United in League Two, delivering an improved level of performance across the board.

Weaver felt that Saturday’s success owed much to the intensity that his charges played with, and although many of those who took on Pools will not feature in midweek, he wants the members of his squad that come into the side to prove they are capable of reaching similar levels.

“We thoroughly deserved the win on Saturday, the intensity was there, and it’s taken time to get to that point just through perseverance and continuously trying to drive home what we have always been about with a new group of players, and now hopefully we can show it on a consistent basis,” Weaver said.

"First and foremost, what I want to see from the players coming into the team is that they’re on it and it is ‘message understood’, not just from the players who took part on Saturday, about how we want to go about games – and the intensity has to be there.

"There will be fewer fans at this game, I would imagine, but that shouldn’t come into it. What we need is a really intense performance, to be horrible out of possession and thoroughly organised against a League One team, but when we have the ball we’ve got to show poise, we’ve got to show options for the man in possession and we’ve got to create chances.

"We can’t have another limp performance like we did in the first 60 minutes against Everton, we need to be better than that.”

Weaver has confirmed that defenders Kyle Ferguson and Miles Welch-Hayes and midfielders George Thomson, Josh Austerfield and Tyler Frost will all feature against the League One Shrimps, while a “couple” of those who started on Saturday will be given the night off.

Town currently sit bottom of Group A with just a single point having lost 2-0 to Hartlepool and drawn 1-1 with Everton Under-21s. But they could still progress to the knock-out stages if they can beat Morecambe by three goals.