03 September 2022

‘No negatives’ for Simon Weaver despite Harrogate defeat

03 September 2022

Simon Weaver was full of praise for his young Harrogate side despite their 2-1 defeat at Sutton.

Harry Beautyman headed Sutton in front from Joe Kizzi’s cross midway through the first half.

Dior Angus and Josh Coley both hit the woodwork as the Londoners pushed hard.

Luke Armstrong equalised on the stroke of half-time from a penalty after he had been fouled by Louis John and academy graduate Kylian Kouassi scored his first competitive goal for the club to put Sutton ahead with 20 minutes to go.

Harrogate’s hopes were further hit when substitute George Horbury was sent off two minutes later for a foul on Beautyman.

“It’s a hard place to come but we are disappointed not to get anything,” said Weaver.

“We were organised throughout and worked hard. We handled their threat very well and got back into the game.

“We are taking the positives from the performance because we had a young side out there and there is plenty to come.

“We are learning the lessons that you get at places like this and we will be stronger for it.

“Every defence that comes here will have to head balls away, it’s a tight pitch and they will put the ball in the box and ask questions.

“I felt we worked really hard today and there were some excellent individual performances.

“With a bit more composure in the final third at times we could have come away with at least a point.

“We were a lot more on the front foot today. We put in a really good shift and went toe-to-toe with them. There’s no negatives for me.

“It was a really good battle today that we narrowly lost, but we will use the experience going forward.”

Sutton boss Matt Gray was left delighted after making it three wins on the trot.

“It has been a great week for us,” he said. “We were good in the first half and I thought we were dominant overall.

“I’m a bit disappointed we didn’t make more of the amount of set-pieces we had and pose a bigger threat.

“We created plenty of chances and I was disappointed we were level at half-time.

“I can see why the penalty was given but I’ve not looked back on it yet.

“We were a bit flat at the start of the second half. We are not a group to feel sorry for ourselves, but we needed a bit of a spark.

“It was a nothing 15-20 minutes. Kylian Kouassi came on and gave us the spark and got a deserved winner.

“The sending-off helped us and we killed off the game really well.”

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