Carabao Cup Round One
Wetherbuy Road, Harrogate
Admission: £10.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 2,177
Following my customer visits today in Newcastle and Kendal, I chose to base myself in Harrogate this evening. Logistically, it did not make much sense, as my next customer visit in the morning would be in Blackpool, but I did not want to pass up the opportunity of ticking another of the 92 (this would be my 85th), and I was fully aware that Harrogate is a lovely town which would be nice to spend an evening in.
Wetherby Road is about a half hour walk from Harrogate town centre, with entrance turnstiles only available from the passing main road – home fans by one corner, away fans by the other. With all tickets priced at £10 for this league cup fixture, I chose one of the best seats in the house, in the main stand straddling the half way line, which is a relatively new structure, as is a separate all-seater stand adjacent to it. To access these stands from the entrance turnstiles, it is necessary to walk along the back of a smart covered terrace, with a refreshment kiosk built into the rear wall, offering a very decent looking menu of pies and other snacks – unfortunately, having previously had an evening meal on company expenses prevented me from partaking. Rather tantalisingly, attractively decorated programme kiosks were also behind this stand, but it turned out no programmes were produced for this game. Along the length closest to the entrance, beyond the ground’s control room, is further covered terracing, with approximate half occupied separately by home and away fans. The remaining end is currently being redeveloped. Whilst having the feel of a non-league ground – naturally, with the club having only been promoted into the EFL XX years ago, it is something of a work in progress, and it is developing into a smart, modern, yet homely and sensibly sized ground for the support Harrogate attracts.
This was an interesting looking fixture, offering the opportunity of a minor giant killing, with the home side being a division below the visitors. However, Harrogate do seem to be Carlisle’s bogey side, with Harrogate unbeaten in seven games, including five wins and two draws, against the Cumbrians since their promotion into the EFL in 2020. Harrogate have generally battled against falling into the trap door back into non-league with finishes of 17th, 19th and most recently 19th again in League Two. They have made a good start to this season though, winning their opening game 0-1 at Doncaster Rovers. Carlisle were promoted into League One this season, following a fifth place finish and winning the play-offs last season. They opened their season with a 1-1 draw at home to Fleetwood, and it was good for me to see how Sam Lavelle would fare in the Carlisle defence, a player who started his career at Charlton in promising fashion, but performances dipped last season, not helped by injuries, and was eventually, and inevitable, moved on in the summer.
A match report from the Harrogate Advertiser can be viewed by clicking here, also copied and pasted below :-
Harrogate Town 1 Carlisle United 0: Sam Folarin fires Sulphurites into second round of Carabao Cup
Harrogate Town extended their long unbeaten record over Carlisle United on Tuesday evening, dumping their League One opponents out of the Carabao Cup.
By rhys howell
A cultured Sam Folarin strike was enough to fire the League Two Sulphurites to a second 1-0 win in as many matches this term and leaves them undefeated in eight clashes with the Cumbrians.
Simon Weaver made seven changes to the side that edged out Doncaster Rovers in Saturday’s season-opener, but the hosts still had enough to seal their place in the competition’s second round.
Both sides made a fairly tentative start to proceedings, and it took until the 16th minute before the game really came to life.
A lovely bit of skill by Harrogate winger Abraham Odoh saw him break free down the left before cutting the ball back for Matty Daly, whose first-time strike didn’t have enough on it to beat Tomas Holy in the away goal.
Just over a minute later, Carlisle should have broken the deadlock.
Dylan McGeouch’s left-wing free-kick was cleared only as far as Jon Mellish, who fired an effort across the face of goal and picked out the unmarked Jack Armer, though he could only smash the ball over the cross-bar from just a couple of yards out.
The Cumbrians were made to pay for that miss midway through the first half when Folarin broke the deadlock with the classiest of finishes.
The hosts turned the ball over in midfield and Matty Daly wasted no time sending Town’s lone striker one-on-one with Carlisle’s last man, Sam Lavelle.
With the big centre-half clearly worried about the space in behind him, he tried to show Harrogate’s lightning quick frontman inside, but this only afforded Folarin the opportunity to stroke a gorgeous 25-yard finish beyond the despairing dive of Tomas Holy and into the bottom corner.
On the half-hour mark, Folarin threatened again, forcing Holy to palm away a well-struck shot from the edge of the box following some delightful link-up play down the left involving both Odoh and Matty Daly.
As pleasing on the eye as a lot of their football was, the Sulphurites were again fortunate not to concede in the 35th minutes as the visitors broke in numbers and Mark Oxley was forced into a good one-on-one stop to deny Luke Plange from a narrow angle.
Undeterred, Town continued probing away, and when the lively Folarin won a free-kick just outside the box, George Thomson’s inviting delivery from the left found Warren Burrell, whose back-post header drew an instinctive save from Holy.
Then, a minute before the break, Carlisle passed up yet another glorious opportunity to get on the score-sheet.
Oxley’s poor clearance resulted in Mellish being gifted a clear run on goal, but the Town custodian redeemed himself, producing an excellent sprawling stop, diverting the ball onto his bar before the covering Kayne Ramsay tidied things up.
Clearly unhappy with his team’s first-half efforts, United chief Paul Simpson made four substitutions at the interval, though those changes didn’t initially make too much difference.
It was Harrogate who created the first chances of the second period, Levi Sutton stabbing wide of the near post from Folarin’s right-wing cross before Thomson curled a free-kick just over the top.
As the evening wore on, Town began to drop progressively deeper, with Carlisle starting to enjoy far more possession.
The hosts rarely looked in any real trouble, but the 75th minute saw United awarded a spot-kick when the advancing Oxley brought down Taylor Charters inside the box.
Harrogate-born Ryan Edmondson took responsibility from 12 yards, and although he sent Town’s goalkeeper the wrong way, his spot-kick failed to even hit the target.
That miss seemed to knock the stuffing out of the away side, just as they had started to look as if they might be building up a head of steam.
The closing stages saw the Sulphurites begin to threaten on the break, with substitute James Daly twice firing high and wide.
With six minutes of stoppage-time up, there was one heart-in-mouth moment for Town as Oxley miscued an attempted punch clear, but Carlisle were unable to capitalise.
Harrogate Town - Oxley, Mattock, Falkingham (c) (Cornelius 79), Burell, Thomson, Odoh (J Daly 69), M Daly, Folarin (Muldoon 70), Sutton (L Gibson 79), Rasay, Foulds. Subs - Thomas (gk), Sims, O'Connor, Horbury, Ilesanmi.
Carlisle United - Holy, Ellis, Barclay, Lavelle (c) (Maguire 46), Mellish, Armer (Robinson 46), McCalmont, McGeouch (Guy 46), Charters, Gibson (Edmondson 46), Plange (Butterworth 71). Subs - Breeze, Garner, Harris, Whelan.
Brief video highlights of this gamae can be viewed by clicking here
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