Stockport County 2 Harrogate Town 1: Simon Weaver pleased with performance despite ‘cruel’ defeat
Simon Weaver said that he was pleased with Harrogate Town’s performance during Tuesday night’s EFL Trophy clash with Stockport County, in spite of the “cruel” nature of his side’s defeat.
The Sulphurites, who are currently trapped inside the League Two relegation zone, looked on course to cause an upset at Edgeley Park after Tom Cursons fired them into a 49th-minute lead.
But the Hatters, who are pushing hard for promotion at the top end of League One, edged into the quarter-finals courtesy of Josh Stokes’ late double.
The decisive goal came from almost the last kick of the game, after Town switched off and were caught out by a quickly-taken free-kick that was finished clinically by the Stockport forward.
Boss Weaver was however encouraged to see his players back up Saturday’s much-improved showing during their 1-1 draw at Crewe Alexandra with another positive display.
"I think that there were some good individual performances in a yellow and black shirt and it’s another decent away performance,” he said.
"We performed well overall against a good League One team. I thought that we played some good stuff at times, we looked organised and the lads worked their socks off.
"The shape was good, we want be able to mix it up, and we have proved the last few games that we can be a handful.
"We have been very competitive again, and we can’t forget all of the positives from the performance and just look at the outcome. We are just wanting to get better as a collective game after game and I do think that we look a more positive squad now with greater depth because players are coming back from injury.”
Addressing the disappointment of County’s last-gasp winner, Weaver added: "The last few seconds, there was a switch-off from a quick free-kick and Stockport deserve credit for that.
"Their player finished it well and I would like to think that it was just a bright bit of thinking on their part, rather than a referee making another error that has cost us.
"But, there are lessons to take from it. We have got to stand over the ball in that situation and take a yellow card if necessary to prevent the short pass being taken.
"It was a cruel way to go out of this cup, but if we are honest the most important thing is the league campaign and building on Saturday’s performance, which I thought that we did.”
Town return to League Two action this Saturday when they travel to fellow strugglers Shrewsbury for what will be a crunch clash.