HARROGATE Town lie in wait for the winner of Wednesday night’s FA Trophy replay between Solihull Moors and Darlington.
Tim Flowers’ side will head for Blackwell Meadows on the back of Saturday’s frustrating 2-2 draw on home soil in the original tie, when the visitors from County Durham levelled the game five minutes from time.
Goals from Sam Jones and Jake Beesley appeared to have been enough to send Solihull through after Will Hatfield’s 21st-minute opener was overturned, before Jack Lambert’s late intervention saved the game for the National League North side.
The Moors manager made a scathing assessment of what he saw and had no qualms in expressing his honest, saying : “I thought we were awful, from start to finish if I’m honest.
“The warm-up, everything I saw was way off it. We were passing nowhere, backwards, sidewards – [it was] pedestrian.
“We were absolutely braindead with what we were doing. Coming in at half time, I had my say, and in the second half it was alright.
“We hit the woodwork a couple of times, but you get nothing for that, [just like] you get nothing at all for a good 70 minutes against Rotherham.
“In the end, we looked susceptible.”
Flowers labelled the performance as being a polar opposite to what his side are usually renowned for, and vowed to shake-up his side in the coming weeks.
“I thought we played like we were having ourselves today – like all of a sudden we’re some big-time Charlie operation.
“We’re the ones that are having to punch above our weight to be where we are, that was nothing like what we are about.
“Make no mistake, I’ll change it. I’ll change them.”
In Saturday’s original tie, a lacklustre start to proceedings was sparked into life by Hatfield’s long-range drive into the bottom corner, leaving goalkeeper Shaun Rowley to pick the ball out of his net.
Debutant Jones, who recently arrived from Harrogate Town on a loan deal, had his first attempt at goal go wide, but made no mistake with his second when slipping the ball into the net from Wright’s lay-off.
Wright went close to putting Solihull in front after the restart, but diverted his header over the crossbar, while James Ball was unable to beat Chris Elliott in a one-on-one with the next chance that arrived.
Just after the hour mark, the hosts went in front when Beesley stabbed the ball home at the second attempt after connecting with Jamey Osborne’s corner.
A third was almost supplied by Nathan Blissett, though his header to ricocheted off the crossbar, as Moors looked to seal their progression.
It was a miss that proved costly when the visitors from County Durham rallied late on. Osagi Bascome forced Rowley into a save, prior to Lambert’s leveller slipped underneath the home stopper with five minutes remaining.
While Solihull pressed for a winner, their efforts were ultimately in vain.
