Anthony O’Connor - Man of the Match Post Match Interview

Harrogate Town Centre Back - Anthony O'Connor

Harrogate Town centre back Anthony O’Conner picked up the Man of the Match award last night for his standout performance against Nottingham Forest U21’s. He clinched the winner in a narrow 2-1 victory at The EnviroVent Stadium to give Town a winning start to their EFL Trophy campaign.

Ant positively picked up on the overall team performance saying: “We passed the ball around well, got into good areas, defended well when we needed to and had a good shape.”

It was a mature and experienced showing from the centre back who was delighted to get his name on the scoresheet to give his side all three points, but more importantly glad to see his side notch their first goal from open play this season.

Ant said about the game management that Harrogate showed, controlling the tempo of the game, and passing and moving the ball well.

Ant commented: “Hopefully we can carry that into the league campaign.”

Talking us through his 82nd minute winner, O’Connor said: “I passed it to Kane (Ramsey) and managed to carry on my run. Kane did what he does well, jinked into the box… I found myself in some space… kept a calm head… managed to get a good connection on it and it’s flew into the top corner.”

Harrogate getting off to winning ways in the EFL Trophy was particularly important for O’Connor who said: “Nice to get on the scoresheet, but more importantly nice get a win for the confidence.”

Town will be looking to bring this confidence into their weekend fixture where they will face an in-form Gillingham side who currently sit third in the Sky Bet League Two, which will be a tough test for Simon Weaver and his team.

Ant said: “Hopefully (we see) more of the same. We’re not silly, we know the league campaign is different to what tonight was… Gillingham have a lot of experience in their side, we’re away from home, the crowd will be against us, so it’ll be a different type of game.”

“Hopefully we implement what we’re good at which is getting the ball down, passing it around… in League Two football you’ve got to be strong and physical but when we do get it down, we have good players in forward areas so we’re going to have to do both sides of the game well.”