Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver rues 'dopey start' as fine run against Bradford City is halted in League Two derby loss

Seeking their eighth win in 11 attempts against the Bantams since coming into the Football League, Town made the worst possible start to allow Antoni Sarcevic to net after just 82 seconds, in what proved to be the only goal on derby day.

Harrogate were much improved on the restart after being second best in the first period, but they could not manufacture a leveller, despite pressure.

Weaver said: “It was a very tight game that was settled from a moment of quality. We switched off in the first 90 seconds but it was a good finish by Sarcevic, which he’s renowned for arriving late in the box.

"We showed good resilience after that dopey start. We grew in stature and pinned them back second half but we didn’t have our moment in front of goal.

"We did contribute to the game well and we created the chances to have got something.

"We challenged the lads at half-time to show a bit more presence in the final third and make the ball stick. It’s easy to mop up if you’re not really doing enough to affect the first ball and we needed to stretch them a bit more.

"We’ve got good enough midfielders to make a difference and when we did it right, Bradford’s players didn’t really impose themselves much second half.

"It’s about organisation. League Two has moved on tactically now and you need to stick to those roles which we didn’t do for the first 90 seconds.

"That gets their heads up and their confidence and obviously it’s in a big stadium where the Bradford fans are very vocal. They have that to their advantage.

“They were riding on a bit of a wave of doing well at home but I don’t think anyone went under. We weathered the storm for 10 minutes and we did that.

"They didn’t create much after that and created nothing second half. We were in the ascendancy against a good team but we had to have someone wanting to grab the headlines enough to break through and score consistently.”