Harrogate Town v Hull City - Another chance for George Long to impress Tigers boss Grant McCann

Harrogate Town lie in wait and to the Suphurites their participation in another EFL tournament is part of the reward for their long journey out of non-league, which they capped with promotion in July.

For Hull, it could be viewed as an inconvenience, certainly for a club that just six years ago was in the FA Cup final, and as recently as January, in the top half of the Championship.

Alas, their plummet last season coincided with Harrogate’s rise and the two Yorkshire rivals find themselves pitted against each other in Group H.

Hull have not featured in the competition since the first midweek of the season in September, when they lost their opening group game to Leicester City Under-21s.

But with Harrogate tonight and Grimsby to follow next Tuesday, it is a chance to maintain their momentum.

McCann said: “I’ve made it very clear to the players in the dressing room that I want to win these two games against Harrogate and Grimsby, because I don’t think there’ll be anything better than a trip to Wembley.

“We just need to negotiate these two games first.

“It’ll be nice to get some of the boys who haven’t had much minutes a bit of game time at Harrogate.”

One of those will be goalkeeper George Long, restored to the first team for the visit of Fleetwood in the FA Cup on Saturday, but yet to make an appearance in League One as he deputises for Matt Ingram.

“George hadn’t a save to make,” reflected McCann of the 2-0 win.

“I was hoping he’d have a save to make because it would have been good for his confidence.

“George will play again on Tuesday night which is back-to-back games for him.

“We’ve got really good competition with those two, Matty and George, and I’m really pleased to have two good goalkeepers.”

Harrogate were also winners in the FA Cup over the weekend, 4-1 over Skelmersdale United on Friday night. Harrogate drew 2-2 at Grimsby in their first Trophy game in September and then beat Leicester City Under-21s 3-1 in October.

FC Halifax Town are in National League action at home to third-placed Wealdstone.

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