Harrogate Town's victory at Doncaster Rovers was no 'smash-and-grab', insists Levi Sutton

Harrogate Town midfielder Levi Sutton was one of the stand-out performers during Tuesday night's 2-0 success at Doncaster Rovers. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

Late goals from Luke Armstrong and substitute Alex Pattison ensured that the Sulphurites made the short journey home from South Yorkshire with their first three-point haul in nine matches, lifting the club nine points clear of the League Two relegation zone.

And although those decisive strikes arrived during the latter stages of the contest, they always looked to be coming following an impressive performance by the visiting side which saw them boss proceedings for long periods.

“It was thoroughly deserved, it wasn’t one of those where it’s a smash-and-grab, we really deserved the win,” Sutton told the Harrogate Advertiser.

Alex Pattison celebrates after firing Harrogate Town into a 2-0 lead against Doncaster Rovers.

"I thought that the boys were terrific, everyone put in a great shift.

"It’s been evident in the last few weeks, since I signed in January really, that there’s a real togetherness and a real desire to do well for this club, so this three points is massive because it’s something we’ve deserved for a while.

"I think that we can kick on now. We’ve been feeling confident because we produced a number of good performances, it was just about turning them into wins and we have finally done that tonight.

"So hopefully we can carry this into the weekend and get another one at Crawley.”

Tuesday’s victory leaves Town 19th in the table after 35 games and Sutton is hoping that such a significant result can prove to be something of a turning point for him and his team-mates.

"I think that we can kick on now,” he added.

"We don’t want to be anywhere near where we are right now and we know that we are good enough to keep pushing up the league, so that is what we are going to try and do."

Harrogate broke the deadlock in the 81st minute of the match when Matty Foulds swung over an inviting free-kick from the right flank and found the leaping Armstrong, whose glancing header was superbly tipped on to the inside of his far post by Jonathan Mitchell.

Town’s leading marksman was however on hand to pounce on the rebound, bundling it over the goal-line from just a couple of yards out.

And things got even better for the Sulphurites just three minutes later when the impressive Kazeem Olaigbe picked up a loose ball close to halfway and drove infield down the left-hand channel.

As he approached the edge of the box, the on-loan Southampton winger showed great awareness and the perfect weight of pass, slipping the ball right for Pattison, whose powerful low blast was too good for Mitchell.