Pete Wild delighted with Barrow performance as they take victory over Harrogate

Posted Sunday, August 21, 2022 by PA

Pete Wild could not hide his delight after his Barrow side’s 1-0 win against Harrogate extended their 100 per cent run at home.

The Bluebirds made it three wins out of three at Holker Street, and climbed to third in the League Two table, courtesy of Josh Gordon’s cross-shot from the sideline that sailed over the crowded area and dipped in just before the half-time whistle.

And Wild was pleased that his players were able to win when not playing at their fluent best.

He said: “I’m ecstatic. I’ve just been saying to the players that we’ve found different ways to win football matches. We had to find a different way to win that today, I’d call that an industrious performance because the lads have had to dig in, the wind was swirling, we’ve had to try to get the ball down and play.

“We’ve had to try to break them down, and they’ve had three out of four clean sheets, so we knew they were tough to break down, but I thought we controlled most of the match. They have had one shot in the 89th minute and it’s a great save from Paul Farman. You need your goalkeeper in every game and he’s come up trumps and that’s allowed us to win the football match.

“I think Harrogate came to try to stop us doing what we do, so that’s a compliment to our players, of how we’re going about our business. We were really happy with how we controlled the whole game, we slowed it down when we needed to and speeded it up when we needed to.

“I think we looked an attacking threat and on another day we could have scored another couple of goals.”

Though they dominated the game, Barrow came close to conceding late on and Harrogate boss Simon Weaver admitted their few chances to salvage a point in the dying moments were too little, too late.

“I’m disappointed to be honest because it’s a windy day, it’s a good pitch to pass the ball about,” said the visitors’ manager.

“We had a difficult first half with the conditions, it was very windy in our faces, and it was difficult to get going. But we managed it until the dying minutes of the first half when we conceded a free-kick and switched off for the second phase and conceded.

“It was a lucky finish, with a deflection, and if we’d have come in at half-time at 0-0 we’d have been saying ‘right, let’s go and win the game’.

“We still kept our composure and tried to accentuate the positives, such as us now kicking with the wind in the second half, but we wanted them to not let the wind dictate the game.

“We wanted them to get the ball down because we didn’t really take responsibility of the ball, we didn’t push the wing-backs on.

“We didn’t get the balls in the box until the last few minutes when we finally created chances and so it feels like a bit of an under-achievement and a failure on our part not to come to the party until it was too late.”