Harrogate Town show encouraging signs but still come off second-best at Grimsby Town
Sulphurites boss Simon Weaver, while frustrated, still came away with pride in his team’s performance.
“It was an improvement on the previous four games,” said Weaver.
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Hide Ad“When you’re on a losing run and things aren’t quite falling for you, you’re keen on scoring the first goal, but they did out of the blue.
“It was a far better performance from our point of view. We all want the result, but we’ve come to play on a difficult surface and ground with great home support, and we didn’t look like a team that had lost four in a row.
“There were two moments in our box that we didn’t deal with, and we had moments in their box where we couldn’t quite execute. Those big moments swinging our way would’ve made a huge difference.
“It’s not easy opposition, and there are no gifts at this level, but the team’s reaction optimised the players’ efforts today.”
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Hide AdHarrogate came closest to breaking the deadlock when Matty Daly’s skill allowed him to break clear and cut the ball back from the byline to Stephen Duke-Mckenna, who fired over.
The best chance of the first half for the hosts fell to Kieran Green, who struck the post with a volley as the ball was knocked in his direction from a deep free-kick.
Evan Khouri put the Mariners ahead with his first professional goal in the 56th minute, getting the slightest touch with his head to help Jayden Luker’s delivery into the net.
Iceland winger Jason Dadi Svanthorsson doubled the home side’s lead in the 74th minute – breaking through one-on-one, he coolly lifted the ball over an onrushing James Belshaw, with Luker providing the assist for a second time.
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Hide AdDuke-Mckenna scored directly from a free-kick to pull one back for Harrogate in the 82nd minute.
Grimsby Town: Wright, Cass, Rodgers, McJannett, Hume, McEachran, Luker (Barrington 82), Green (Davies 83), Khouri, Ainley (Svanthorsson 68), Gardner (Rose 59). Unused substitutes: Auton,Tharme,Pyke.
Harrogate Town: Belshaw, Asare (Sims 77), O'Connor, Moon, Foulds, Sutton, Dooley, Cornelius (Bray 76), M Daly, Duke-Mckenna, J Daly (Muldoon 61). Unused substitutes: Oxley, Burrell, Folarin, Etherington.
Referee: Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire).