CHEERS! IT’S A DOUBLE DIAMOND
JACK Diamond fired a double as Harrogate beat Bradford City, but manager Simon Weaver saved his praise for keeper Mark Oxley.
The 31-year-old former Southend keeper made four excellent saves to deny Bradford trio Tom Elliot, Jamie Walker and Andy Cook (twice), before Diamond fired the hosts in front with only their second shot of the match just past the hour mark.
On-loan winger Diamond then sealed the win with his second of the afternoon nine minutes later with Weaver saying: “Big Ox made a big save for us in the first half from Cook, who we all know is a dangerous player for them.
“That kept us in the game at half-time and he’s a top keeper. We’ve kept four clean sheets on the bounce at home and the last two have been in terrible, windy conditions.
“But that does not affect him or even his kicking. He just gets on with his game and is a model professional.”
Oxley made three smart saves to keep his team on level terms at the break, as he denied Elliot, Walker and Cook.
The Bantams continued to press after the restart with Oxley again showing outstanding reflexes to keep out Cook’s downward header, while Warren Burrell also cleared a Yann Songo’o header off the line.
But, despite having had 16 goal attempts by the hour mark, the visitors fell behind to Harrogate’s second chance of the afternoon in the 62nd minute when Alex Pattison fed Diamond through the left channel and his diagonal 10-yard shot deflected off Oscar Threlkeld and over helpless keeper Alex Bass.
Diamond then wrapped up the points nine minutes later, winning possession close to the halfway line and driving forward before firing a 15-yard shot into Bass’s bottom-right corner.
Victory extended Harrogate’s 100 per cent record against Bradford to a third game with Weaver adding: “We’ve had some really good moments over the last few years and some big wins, but they don’t come much bigger than this.
“Bradford City are a massive club and it’s a big Yorkshire derby – for us anyway. I thought we played the better football in the first half and the lads deserve credit for that because they had to fight for every ball in terrible conditions.
“We were a bit fortunate for the first goal with the deflection but I thought we’d earned that luck and Jack ran them ragged all day.”
Bradford fans vented their frustration after the game but manager Derek Adams said: “I was brought to the club because I’ve been promoted out of it twice but managers have to be given time to sort things out.”
HARROGATE TOWN: Oxley 8, Thomson 6, Burrell 7, Legge 7, Page 7, Diarra 7, Falkingham 7, Pattison 8, Diamond 9, Kavanagh 6 (Muldoon 53, 7), Armstrong 7 (Beck 82, 6). Subs not used: Smith, Cracknell, Sheron, Austerfield.
BRADFORD CITY: Bass 6, Songo’o 6, O’Connor 7, Ridehalgh 6, Threlkeld 6, Watt 6, Cooke 7 (Robinson
HERO: Harrogate players 70, 6), Walker 7, Foulds 7, Elliott 7 (Delfouneso
57, 6), Cook 7 (Gilliead 78, 6). Subs not used: mob Jack Diamond O’Donnell , Sutton, Daly, Hendrie.