Leeds United 1 Harrogate Town 0: No Hollywood moment for visitors as Largie Ramazani puts hosts into round four of the FA Cup

A decade ago on this very weekend, Town played at Brackley in Conference North. Here, they were participating in the third round of the cup in front of a crowd of 35,584, including 3,951 of their own supporters. It’s been a fair old journey.

A total of 68 places separated these sides. Leeds progressed, deservedly so, but Harrogate’s game and hearty effort was laudable. They had their moments to threaten Leeds in the second half and their followers were entitled to be proud on only the club’s second appearance at this stage of the competition.

The decisive moment arrived just before the hour mark courtesy of a header from Largie Ramazani.

Leeds would have liked a couple more goals for sure, but they are through and that’s the name of the game.

In front of almost 4,000 of their supporters - for context, the gate of 4,010 in Harrogate’s second-round win over Gainsborough was their biggest home attendance since 1950 - the Sulphurites’ game plan was well executed in the opening half, although ahead of the break, there were signs of strain as Leeds pushed for an opener and upped the urgency.

A major scare arrived ahead of the interval when Mateo Joseph cashed in on loose play by James Daly to drive deep into Harrogate territory and saw his low shot beat James Belshaw and strike the post, but other than that, there were not too many alarms in truth.

The main actual incident, aside from Joseph’s moment, arrived on 12 minutes when Leeds were fortunate not to concede a penalty.

Anthony O’Connor’s pinpoint lofted pass picked out Josh March. With full debutant Josuha Guilavogui – one of eight Leeds changes - guilty of getting too tight, the Harrogate forward threatened to burst away on the left-hand edge of the box before going down under clear contact from the arm of the panicking Leeds utility player, who bundled him over from behind.

Referee James Bell wasn’t interested, but the challenge was pretty clumsy.

Other than that, it was largely about keeping their shape without the ball - essentially a 4-5-1 and trying to smother space and block Leeds’ passing lanes. It worked well enough, although Leeds were starting to show positive signs as the half progressed, if not always the ingenuity.

Ramazani had one or two bursts, but his final product wasn’t always the best and Manor Solomon and Willy Gnonto were lively in spells.

The emphasis for Leeds was not just being patient, but finding the requisite quality to grab the opener and trash Harrogate’s game plan in the process.

The visitors’ plan relied on their defenders being diligent and they certainly were. O’Connor and Jasper Moon made some important interventions as did Warren Burrell, who got in the way of a dangerous drive from Joseph.

On the restart, it was Harrogate who showed first, with an important last-ditch challenge from Pascal Struijk stopping Dean Cornelius from getting a clean strike on goal when well placed.

Leeds took the hint with Solomon cutting inside from the left and seeing his curler shave the bar but Harrogate remained a bit more emboldened from an attacking sense.

Daly blocked Ampadu’s pass out and the ball fell to March, whose shot was straight at Darlow, fortunately.

It was turning into a more open spectacle. Soon after, Leeds were afforded relief.

Solomon got a yard of space on the left to get away from Cornelius and his dink picked out Ramazani from close in after getting in between Burrell and Moon. It was the first switch-off from Harrogate’s backline and proved costly and the winger really couldn’t miss with his free header.

Understandably, Harrogate were showing signs of fatigue after a game effort, but still in it, just about and they showed heart going forward and were a bit more bold. The narrow scoreline was something to enthuse them heading into the final quarter with Leeds yet to put the game to bed.

From set-plays, they afforded Leeds one or two palpitations, in particular.

Late on, substitute Daniel James was denied at the near post by Belshaw after being slipped in by Joseph.

Leeds United: Meslier; Byram (Firpo 77), Guilavogui, Struijk (Rodon 65), Schmidt; Ampadu, Rothwell (Tanaka 65); Gnonto (Greuv 89), Ramazani, M Solomon (James 78); Joseph. Substitutes unused: Meslier, Bogle, Aaronson, Wober.

Harrogate Town: Belshaw; Sims (Asare 83), O’Connor, Moon, Burrell; Cornelius (Taylor 72), Sutton (Dooley 77); Morris, J Daly (Duke-McKenna 83); Muldoon (Folarin 71), March. Substitutes unused: Oxley, M Daly, E Solomon, Bray.

Referee: J Bell (Sheffield)

Attendance: 35,584 (3,951 Harrogate Town supporters).