City blitz Harrogate in 25 minute second half spell

City tore Harrogate Town apart in a 25 minute second half spell to come away with all three points and a 3-0 victory.

Wetherby Road hasn't been a happy hunting ground in recent seasons and City were in for a tough time, even more so with Club Captain Ellis Deeney missing out to avoid picking up a yellow card, which would have put him out of the FA Cup 2nd Round tie at Scunthorpe.

Graham Hutchison was pushed into midfield to replace Deeney with Jacob Rowe and Captain Wayne Thomas in the centre of defence. Danny Jackman & Daniel Nti dropped to the bench.

City took a while to get going & could not get into their usual free flowing rhythm and it was Harrogate who dominated the early exchanges. James Walshaw shot high over the bar on 5 minutes and Nathan Vaughan was soon after making a save from Lewis Turner on 11 minutes.

On 21 minutes Nathan Vaughan leapt into action once more making a point blank save from David McGurk who deflected a Craig Nelthorpe shot goal bound.

City's first chance came on 32 minutes when Sean Geddes crossed for Nick Wright who fired wide. City were still not in their stride and on 42 minutes Jacob Rowe hobbled off to be replaced by Danny Jackman, with Graham Hutchison dropping back into his favourable position in the heart of the defence.

City came out stronger in the second half and started to create more chances and get into their familiar possession & passing game.

On 62 minutes Daniel Nti replaced Nick Wright and within three minutes had broken the dead lock. Nti received the ball wide on the right and was brought down. From the resulting free kick the Harrogate defence failed to clear and with his back to goal Nti turned and fired a great shot past Phil Barnes.

On 79 minutes a great spell of possession football was rewarded with a tremendous strike from Sean Geddes from the edge of the box to put City 2-0 up.

By now City were in complete control of the game and continued to create chances. On 81 minutes Tristan Dunkley replaced Jordan Murphy and within a minute had rounded the keeper wide on the right and passed into the box, but there was no City player to follow up.

Harrogate forced a succession of corners, none of which came to anything and on 90 minutes another corner was cleared to the edge of the box. Sean Geddes was quickest to react and City broke with pace straight up the other end to Daniel Nti, whose initial shot was blocked but as the defenders stood looking for the ball Nti pounced to drive home to make it 3-0.

Deep into added time, Nathan Vaughan again denied Harrogate with a point blank save to keep another clean sheet.