Joe Mattock and Warren Burrell 'immense' as Harrogate Town shut out Bradford City in FA Cup success

The 32-year-old centre-half returned from a hamstring injury to line up alongside Warren Burrell at the heart of the visiting defence as the Sulphurites booked their place in the second round of the FA Cup.

The pair were singled out by manager Simon Weaver for their contribution to that 1-0 win at Valley Parade, with the Harrogate boss hailing a focused and organised defensive display which prevented the Bantams from registering even a single shot on target.

Burrell was excellent and made a crucial block inside his own box to deny Richie Smallwood a second-half equaliser, but the difference that Mattock’s presence makes cannot be understated.

Town conceded six goals in the two matches that the summer signing from Rotherham United was sidelined for - three in the space of 20 first-half minutes when they were blown away by Walsall, then twice in quick succession late on at AFC Wimbledon last weekend as a 2-1 lead was surrendered.

Saturday saw Harrogate keep their first clean-sheet in 11 attempts.

“Joe Mattock was immense,” Weaver reflected. “He’s fully fit, as you can see.

“He took a hefty blow to his head, but it didn’t stop him did it. He was very, very strong in his performance.

“He’s got a wealth of experience, is very composed at the back and is a good leader for us.

“The two centre-halves were immense in their efforts and stayed right on it in terms of their concentration, which is required at this level.

“The four stayed intact throughout the game, so when the ball was central, the lads really remained very narrow, so they [Bradford] didn’t have that space between the lines and they weren’t able to turn and roll us on the edge of the box either.”

With Mattock only having resumed light training at the back of last week after tweaking his hamstring during the first half of October 22’s 1-1 draw with Tranmere, playing 90-odd minutes against the Bantams wasn’t initially the plan.

But Weaver has revealed why he was forced into a defensive reshuffle.

“It wasn’t an ideal scenario before the game, Rory McArdle reporting with a swollen knee on Friday,” he added.

“We perhaps could have forced it, but we didn’t want to do that, go into Tuesday an experienced defender down.

“We’ve got some important games coming up so we had to push Joe Mattock straight back into the line-up, probably ahead of schedule.

“It was just precautionary with Rory, but his knee is swollen. We didn’t want to get him to 60 minutes then him miss Tuesday as well.”

Matty Daly netted the only goal of Saturday’s first-round tie with just eight minutes on the clock.

Alex Pattison switched the ball from left to right, picking out Jack Muldoon, who cut inside Matty Foulds before teeing up the on-loan Huddersfield midfielder to register his fourth strike in as many matches.

Town return to League Two action on Tuesday evening when they entertain Carlisle United at Wetherby Road, 7.45pm kick-off.