Harrogate Town at their best to defeat Newport County and delight Simon Weaver

Harrogate led 2-0 thanks to goals either side of half-time from George Thomson and Anthony O’Connor.

The home side pulled a goal back through Will Evans – his 10th of the season – just before the hour mark, but they could not find an equaliser.

“We’re delighted with today’s showing; I thought we showed a bit of everything, and we had to to get the three points,” said Weaver.

“There was a lot of gritty defending in the last 10 minutes, but before that I thought we were in a dominant position at 2-0 because of a dominant display.

“There was fluent passing, good forward movement and we caused them problems.”

Thomson put Harrogate ahead after 42 minutes with a 25-yard strike and O’Connor headed in from a corner seven minutes after the break before Evans’s close-range finish at the other end.

“The goal we conceded obviously offered them an opportunity to get back into the game and we had to show our resilience at the end,” added Weaver.

“I thought our centre-halves dealt with Omar Bogle probably the best we’ve ever dealt with him, because he always seems to score against us!”