Harrogate Town's stubbornness was key to them taking a point off high-flying Stevenage FC, says Simon Weaver
Simon Weaver felt that his Harrogate Town players’ stubbornness helped earn them a point from Saturday’s League Two clash with high-flying Stevenage.
Having shaded what was a fairly attritional first half in difficult conditions at a freezing Wetherby Road, the Sulphurites found themselves trailing to Carl Piergianni’s strike at a 60th-minute corner.
The period which followed saw Town struggle to escape their own half as Stevenage piled on the pressure, but with a second away goal looking very much on the cards, it was the hosts who went down the other end and got themselves back on terms through Luke Armstrong.
And Weaver was encouraged by how his side hung in and stayed in the game against opponents who turned over Premier League Aston Villa last time out.
“I was delighted with the application of the players,” he said. “They dug in and managed to respond to going a goal down in what was a game of few chances. It was a hard task but it was just about staying in the game and not getting flustered.
“Perhaps in previous matches when we’ve conceded one it’s then become 2-0 and then you are stretched, you’re having to change the shape and throw people on. But today we just stuck to the task, stuck to the task.
“They had a 10-minute spell after they scored, but the centre-halves were heading everything out, reading the danger.
“We were stubborn, we kept our resolve and I felt that if we kept our minds steady then we would create a chance to get back into it.
“It was about restricting their goal-scoring chances because we tend to create chances and we have got a goal-scorer who is in form in the team.”
Armstrong’s 77th-minute equaliser came from Alex Pattison’s left-wing cross, and although it arrived somewhat against the run of play, Weaver believes that his team fully deserved to get back on terms.
“Absolutely I am pleased with a point,” he added. “I thought we deserved it and you have to, you don’t get a fluky result against this Stevenage team because of their physicality and because they know what they’re about.
“After they scored, they were putting it on us, the conditions made it hard for us to get out and they were doing a good job of running the clock down.
“But I always felt we would create a chance to get back in it. We didn’t need to change it too much, all we did was switch to having just one holding midfielder rather than having two and one in front. It was a little tinker rather than scrapping it all and going 4-3-3.
“Danny Grant caused them problems down our left and it’s a good overlapping run from Alex Pattison for the goal. That cross with his left foot shows just how much ability he has in both feet and then there’s that movement from Luke Armstrong that gets him into the right place at the right time.”
Saturday’s draw drops Harrogate down to 20th in the table but edges them a point further away from the relegation zone and five ahead of 23rd-placed Hartlepool.