Simon Weaver can only mind the gap as Harrogate Town are outclassed by Blackburn Rovers

Even with key players rested, the Championship side had far too much for their fourth-tier opponents, strolling to an 8-0 victory.

What did disappoint manager Weaver was that Harrogate had helped them on their way early on, a couple of errors giving Blackburn a 2-0 lead inside 15 minutes.

They doubled it by the end of the first half, and again in the second.

Harrogate missed a couple of chances to limit the damage through Jack Muldoon in the first half, but the quality with which Blackburn were able to pass the ball on a pitch made for football, not giantkilling was hugely impressive, even if the space Harrogate gave them made it hard to properly judge.

"You could see the gulf in class was huge tonight and it is between Championship and League Two level," admitted Weaver, who made eight changes from the side which won a heartening 2-0 victory over Morecambe days earlier.

"We were missing a few big players that would have made it a bit more competitive.

"We had to rest a few from the start ust to make sure they were all right for Saturday (when Barrow are the visitors to Wetherby Road) after they took a few bangs at the weekend.

"It was disappointing because of the first 30 minutes and the fact it ran away from us in the second half.

"We weren't compact enough and no matter what we did, how we tried to tweak it to a 4-5-1 to try and stem the flow they had an answer to that because they had top Championship quality and were full of confidence.

"We've got to do better the next time we have an opportunity against a team of that standard."

There were a few boos at full-time but Weaver refused to question the character of his downtrodden players.

"I don't think we've played a club of that stature and quality, zipping it around like that (before)," he argued. "I don't think it's always about saying, 'You were an absolute disgrace.'

"None of us were good tonight, we were well short and when you come in at half-time 4-0 down people are going to be disappointed.

"In the second half a couple did let their heads go down but I wouldn't say it was a mass capitulation."