Harrogate Town 1 Port Vale 1: Sulphurites good value for a point at home to play-off chasers

Leading until the 68th minute through an Alex Pattison strike which rounded off a slick attacking move, the Sulphurites were eventually pegged back by Ryan Edmondson's close-range header.

But, Simon Weaver will have been able to draw plenty of positives from a hard-working display that was full of energy and character and saw the hosts successfully go toe-to-toe with a visiting side who are now unbeaten in nine matches.

Following a fairly even start to proceedings, Vale went on to enjoy a spell of pressure and Ben Garrity twice missed the target with free headers from set-piece deliveries.

But, having escaped unscathed, Town broke the deadlock on 23 minutes courtesy of an extremely well-worked goal.

A lovely bit of interplay between Jack Diamond and Jack Muldoon took the hosts through the middle of the pitch and into the penalty area where the latter teed-up Pattison to fire past Tomas Holy.

Warren Burrell, who had already made one important block inside his own box to deny Chris Hussey, repeated the trick after half-an hour as Edmondson got himself into a dangerous position and pulled the trigger.

A curling Hussey free-kick then drew a diving save out of Harrogate custodian Mark Oxley before Diamond went down the other end and dragged an effort wide.

The Valiants began the second period brightly and were very much in the ascendancy for 10 minutes until Town got themselves up the field and began to ask a few questions of their own.

Diamond blasted another poor strike wide of the mark before Muldoon raced into the box down the right and got the better of couple of defenders before drawing a decent parry out of Holy at his near post.

The see-saw nature of the contest continued and with Vale again pushing hard, Edmondson had the ball in the back of the net on 66 minutes, only to be adjudged to have committed a foul in the act of scoring.

There was however to be no reprieve for the hosts just moments later when James Gibbons swung over an inviting cross from the left and Edmondson was able to direct a close-range header inside Oxley's far post.

The closing stages passed by without too much incident, though Vale came within a couple of inches of snatching all three points in the final seconds of stoppage-time as James Wilson rifled a hopeful long-range shot against the top of the home cross-bar.

A point, which was a fair outcome on the balance of play, keeps Harrogate 14th in the League Two standings.