Harrogate Town 0 Oldham 3 - ‘Second goal was the key moment in the game’ admits Simon Weaver

Trailing 1-0 at the interval to Alfie McCalmont’s spectacular seventh-minute opener, just a few seconds had passed following the resumption when Dylan Bahamboula struck to leave the Sulphurites with a mountain to climb.

Latics substitute George Blackwood went on to make it 3-0 late on, though Weaver said that it was the blow so early in the second period which “knocked the stuffing” out of his players.

“I think that the second goal was the key moment in the game,” he reflected. “There was still a long way to go, but I think it knocked the stuffing out of us and Oldham are a slippery team.

“Once things get a bit stretched they can knock it around you, which is what they did.”

What is concerning for Weaver is that Town’s defence has now been breached in the first minute of the second half three times in their past five games.

“We have to go more in depth into why, after the re-start, have their been so many times where we have not switched on,” he added.

Harrogate Town: Cracknell; Burrell (Fallowfield 79), Smith, Hall, Roberts; Thomson (Kiernan 83), Falkingham (Williams 83), Kerry (Francis 79), McPake; Muldoon, Stead (Beck 75). Unused substitutes: Belshaw.

Oldham Athletic: Walker; Jameson, Piergianni, Borthwick-Jackson: Clarke, McCalmont (Garrity 71), Whelan, Adams (Badan 82); Bahamboula (Barnes 65), Keillor-Dunn (Vaughan 82), McAleny (Blackwood 72). Unused substitutes: Bilboe, Fage.

Referee: C Boyeson (East Yorkshire).

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