Simon Weaver hails Harrogate Town's 'superhuman' effort during Tranmere Rovers success

The Sulphurites served up what was without doubt their most entertaining performance of the season at Wetherby Road, scoring two good goals to seize control of the game before Ben Fox’s sensational 75th-minute strike ultimately decided matters.

But, despite twice being two goals to the good, Town very nearly had to settle for just a point as Josh Hawkes missed a 91st-minute penalty that would have drawn visitors level.

And although they ended clinging on somewhat in the end, Weaver was full of praise for his team after the full-time whistle.

“The effort of the players was superhuman tonight,” he said. “Everybody was flying into challenges and tackles and I thought that we were exciting to watch.

“Anybody who was here tonight would have come away thinking that was a proper game of football. It was two teams having a real good go and it didn’t feel like the bottom-end-of-the-table battle.

“I said to the lads at half-time ‘this is as good as I’ve seen us play for some time, but the thing is, we are judged over 90 minutes’. But we managed to do it again in the second half, and overall I thought we deserved to win.

“So, to sum it up, from our perspective it was a brilliant night.”

Ellis Taylor and Tom Cursons struck either side of half-time to put Weaver’s men 2-0 up by the 58th-minute, and although Fox fizzed home a stunning third for the hosts after Regan Hendry had pulled one back, they had to endure a nervy finale as Omari Patrick bagged Rovers’ second of the night.

But, hold out they did, leaving a beaming Weaver to reflect on a much-improved attacking display.

"We have been aware that we have been scoring set-piece goals, but not been really cut-throat in an attacking sense in the final third, but we were tonight,” he added.

“We got the ball forward pretty quickly and we got good, early balls into the box, dangerous-looking balls. We attacked between the posts and we got our goals by doing that.

"We could do that because we had a good, solid platform again, with the two central midfielders [Fox and Bryn Morris] instrumental in winning first and second balls and doing all the ugly stuff superbly well to allow us to dominate spells in the game.

"That has been one improvement in the team, but where we have really needed to improve was scoring more goals and we have scored three well-executed goals tonight, including a worldie from Ben Fox.”

Victory over Tranmere lifts Town one place in the League Two standings to 20th, and keeps them nine points clear of the relegation zone with just six games left to play this term.