Confidence running high for Harrogate Town and Alex Pattison after win over Barrow

Having netted with a cultured, curling finish during the Sulphurites’ opening-day win over Rochdale, he took his tally for the club to three in two games by bagging both goals in Saturday’s 2-1 success against Barrow.

The 23-year-old’s first of the afternoon levelled things up on the hour-mark with the aid of a huge deflection off a defender and some hapless goalkeeping by the Bluebirds’ Paul Farman.

His second saw him finish a devastating counter-attack, driving from close to halfway before blasting home to wrap up a second victory in as many League Two outings this term.

Naturally, the ex-Middlesbrough trainee was delighted with his contribution.

“I’m buzzing to get the two goals,” Pattison said.

“The first one was a little bit of luck, a lot of luck really, but I’ve hit it and it is going on target so I will take it as my goal. It’s lucky it has gone in, but a goal is a goal.

“For the second, I saw I was one-versus-one with their centre-back. Lloydy [Kerry] was screaming in my ear and I was thinking ‘do I pass it?’ But I felt confident to take it on myself and luckily I finished it off.

“I was confident. I felt like I had the better of the centre-half, so I went myself and just focused on the goal and put it in.

“Lloyd said to me ‘it’s a good job you scored otherwise I would have been fuming’.”

Harrogate fell behind on 17 minutes when Offrande Zanzala stretched to stab home Patrick Brough’s inviting left-wing cross, but Pattison says he and his team-mates always believed that they would get themselves back into the game and insists that they were good value for all three points.

“I think that we were the better side from start to finish. We just need to tighten up with the crosses into the box,” he added.

“We’re not a team who, if a goal goes against us, we’re going to drop off and not get on the ball. We knew that if we kept doing the right things then we would get back in the game.

“We knew we were the better side and that showed in the end, quality always comes through.”

Harrogate Town: Oxley; Burrell, McArdle, Hall, Page (Fallowfield 11); Thomson, Falkingham, Pattison, Muldoon; Armstrong (Martin 88), Orsi (Kerry 59). Unused substitutes: Cracknell, Smith, Sheron.

Barrow: Farman; Brown, Ellis, Grayson (Arthur 90); Hutton, Banks, White (Williams 68), Brough; Gordon, Zanzala (Nthle 58), Kay (James 76). Unused substitutes: Taylor, Jones, Moloney.

Referee: T Kettle (Rutland).