Harrogate Town’s Matty Daly happy to prove a point to former club Bradford City with FA Cup winner

But, the 21-year-old midfielder, who felt last season’s loan spell at Valley Parade “didn’t go so well”, insisted that he was happier about extending his run of scoring in consecutive matches than he was to have got one over on his former side.

Everton academy graduate Daly joined Bradford from parent club Huddersfield in January following a productive first half of the 2021/22 season with Hartlepool. But, having netted one goal in nine games, he never even made it as far as a match-day squad again after picking up a knock in mid-March.

He has however made a bright start to life at Wetherby Road and is the Sulphurites’ top-scorer with six goals after his neat finish from Jack Muldoon’s cross saw him hit the back of the net for the fourth match in succession.

"It was a great team goal, an unbelievable pass from Patto [Alex Pattison] from the other side of the pitch, then Mullers got at his man and found the pass into me,” Daly told the Harrogate Advertiser.

"It felt really good to score against Bradford, I was hoping to carry on the form that I’ve been in.

"There was a little bit of proving a point after last season, but for me it was more about carrying on my own form in front of goal.

"But, of course, I had time here and it didn’t go so well in an individual sense, so it was nice to score.

"I’m on six goals at the moment, four in the last four and I’m hoping to hit double-figures to be honest. But I’m not pushing it too much, I’ll just take it game by game.”

Saturday’s 1-0 derby success was Town’s first win away from home since they beat Gillingham 2-0 on August 16.

They should have bagged three points at AFC Wimbledon in their previous outing having taken a 2-1 lead into the 84th minute of that game, only to concede twice late on and finish up empty-handed.

But Daly insisted that it was only a matter of time before things came together on the road for the Sulphurites.

“A result like this has been a long time coming. We’ve put in a few good performances, so it felt great to get the win as a team,” he added.

"The idea was to sit in and play on the counter-attack. We’ve got very good technical players and we can pass the ball very well. We showed glimpses at Wimbledon and then put in a good performance on Saturday, but without conceding.

"A result like this shows that we are a proper team. The work we’ve been putting in, it was always going to come out at the other end at some point.

"It can 100 percent be a turning point in the season. We can take this into the game on Tuesday and on Saturday.”