Harrogate Town 0 Cheltenham Town 1 - Frustrated Town boss Simon Weaver wants side to be more adventurous

William Boyle’s 43rd-minute header settled a scrappy affair on a freezing cold evening in North Yorkshire, condemning the Sulphurites to a first defeat in three following back-to-back League Two victories.

“There was no space between their five at the back once they went 1-0 up and it was very difficult, but we still didn’t split enough at the back when our keeper got it,” Weaver reflected.

“It was lumped down the middle too often and I know that it takes a brave man to want the ball to try and play out from the back on a night like this on a frozen pitch, but we have to aspire to be that team.

“Sometimes it becomes relentless, the direct balls, it becomes a real League Two battle and I don’t expect us to play like Manchester City, it’s not that, but there are times during passages of play where he have to get on the ball, it’s as simple as that.

“It is frustrating. We’ve got to make sure that we are more creative than that. We didn’t manage to get the ball out wide enough in the second half. We dropped off a bit deep and got sucked into a game where it was hard to enact what we wanted to do.”

Harrogate Town: Belshaw; Burrell (Fallowfield 74), Lawlor (Andrews 89), Hall, Francis; Power, Thomson, Falkingham, McPake (Muldoon 74); Martin, March. Unused substitutes: Minter, Kiernan, Kerry.

Cheltenham: Griffiths; Raglan, Tozer, Boyle; Blair, Azaz (Sercombe 80), Clements (Long 30), Thomas, Hussey; May (Vassilev 80), Williams. Unused substitutes: Harris, Bowry, Addai, Wright.

Referee: G Salisbury (Lancashire).

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