Harrogate Town's players commended for response to early set-back and conceding twice at Newport County

The Sulphurites ran out 3-2 winners in South Wales on Tuesday evening, that result rubber-stamping their place in League Two for next season.

And while they were arguably good value for maximum points, the Wetherby Road outfit did not have things all their own way and fell behind inside three minutes as Omar Bogle struck.

Sam Folarin would however level matters almost immediately, and with just nine minutes on the clock, George Thomson fired Town into the lead.

The visitors retained that advantage until the 79th minute when Bogle netted again following a concerted spell of Newport pressure.

But, just as they had done in the opening half, Harrogate reacted positively to that set-back and scored what proved to the game’s decisive goal four minutes later through Luke Armstrong.

"The response of the players tonight when we conceded the goals was immense," Weaver said.

"We recovered from an early set-back and scored two quick-fire goals. How quickly we turned it around and scored, we bounced back in style and it just felt like when we wanted to go through the gears, we could.

“There was that enterprise on the ball tonight. I thought that at times we could have done better on the ball, spent more time and energy on the ball.

"But we were excitable because we were playing well and suddenly you're giving the ball away a little bit too freely but the goals will have excited the fans, they excited us and are good for the confidence levels."

That resilience, as well as the incisive nature of their attacking play and the ruthlessness shown by his players in the final third were always going to be huge plus points for Weaver after the final whistle at Rodney Parade.

He was however equally as thrilled by the way Town performed at the opposite end of the field, where they spent long periods under an aerial bombardment.

"Every time the ball went out of play it seemed like they were getting a towel out, getting the ball dried and launching it back into the box," he added. “It's hard to play against.

"People knock it, but I'm not. There are different ways to win a game of football and to win tonight we knew that we had to withstand that physical pressure.

"You have to stand up to that and I thought that we did. We stood up to it really well, whereas earlier on in the season we might have gone under.”

Tuesday's result lifts Town up to 20th in the table, where they now sit nine points clear of the drop zone and within touching distance of the three sides directly above them.

Next up is a trip to promotion-chasing Mansfield, 3pm kick-off this Saturday.