Harrogate Town's win at Carlisle United built on hard work and desire, says Anthony O'Connor

But, Anthony O’Connor believes that through sheer desire and a willingness to graft for 90 minutes in testing conditions, Harrogate Town did enough to warrant leaving Carlisle United with all three points on Saturday afternoon.

Despite failing to muster a single shot on target during the course of the match, the Sulphurites secured a first League Two win in six attempts courtesy of Paul Huntingdon’s calamitous late own goal.

A strong contender for man of the match following another solid showing at the heart of Town’s back-line, O’Connor concedes that he and his team-mates got lucky when the United centre-half put through his own net as he attempted to pass the ball back to goalkeeper Tomas Holy.

The 30-year-old is however adamant that Harrogate’s dogged and pragmatic approach during the 81 minutes which preceded that moment meant they always had a chance of coming away from Brunton Park with a result.

“There was not much in the game,” O’Connor reflected. “I don’t think they looked like conceding, I don’t think we looked like conceding, I thought it had 0-0 written all over it and then we obviously get the luck with the goal, but as a team we worked ever so hard to get a result.

"I think that anyone can beat anyone in this division, it’s just who turns up on the day and who wants it more. I’m not saying that Carlisle didn’t want it, but I think that we showed the desire, and put in the graft as a whole team to keep the ball out of the net and to try and hurt them going the other way when we got the chance.

"As a unit, not just as a back-four and the keeper, as a whole team, there was such hard graft, tackling and hooking balls on. We didn’t really get the chance to get the ball down and play how we like to, but you have to show that side of the game, especially in conditions like these.

"The conditions were horrible. It’s important that you play to the conditions and we did that well today, showed good game-management. It’s a good win against a team who have been flying.”

A January arrival from League One Morecambe, O’Connor has fitted in seamlessly at Wetherby Road, something which he attributes to the warm welcome he received from his team-mates.

And he also feels that the character and personality inside Town’s dressing room played a big part in what was a much-needed success up in Cumbria at the weekend.

"There’s a great bunch of boys here, I said it from the first day I walked in,” the former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international said.

"They all made me feel very welcome. I felt comfortable from day one and I’ve not a bad word to say about any of them.

"You can see that on the pitch, it’s testament to the club and to the lads, you can see in the graft that we all put in for each other that we all want to win.

"It’s never easy coming to a place like Carlisle and so the fact that we have come away with three points and a clean-sheet is just testament to the boys.

"We’ve had results not go our way but hopefully this is something to build on. It’s just one game, it’s three points and we will enjoy it, but it is important that we move on to the next game and look to build on this.”

Saturday’s victory was Town’s first in six matches and sees them climb one place to 20th in the League Two standings, maintaining the three-point gap between them and the relegation zone.