Simon Weaver keen to shed ‘plucky’ tag with Harrogate

Harrogate boss Simon Weaver insisted his side are more than “plucky” underdogs after they ended Gillingham’s club-record unbeaten league run with a 1-0 win.

Stephen Duke-McKenna’s 16th-minute effort separated the two sides at Priestfield as the Gills’ impressive sequence was ended at 21 league games.

It was a first league loss under boss Gareth Ainsworth, who took the helm in March.

And Weaver, whose side secured their first league win on the road since the opening day, said: “The hard work from the players has come to fruition once again.

“Gillingham came into the game off the back of a great run of form. They’ve created a club-record run of being unbeaten in games and it’s a scalp for us and we should take confidence from it.

“I said in the team talk before the game that to achieve what we want to achieve we had to go up a gear.

“We’re ambitious. We’d love to be in a position as a club where we’re big enough to fill an away stand.

“It makes the players feel better about themselves, their self-esteem, their confidence and accountability as well.

“It’s right up there in terms of achievements. It should fill them with belief going forward.

“I said to the lads before the game that I hear interviews and people praise us for being plucky. We want to get rid of just being plucky.

“We’ve got good ability, the players have good quality. We’re more than plucky. We get a rough ride of it sometimes that we do well for being such a small club.

“We want to make the town proud of the team and the football we can play.”

The Gills lost their first home game since February and Ainsworth said: “There was everything there that I want to see except goals.

“We gave Harrogate something to defend and hold on to and you have to give credit to them for that.

“My players gave everything except scoring a goal.

“It’s taken six months for this interview to happen (to mark the first loss). That’s pretty good as a manager, half a year.

“The big thing for me is the lads are devastated, they are absolutely devastated like it’s the worst thing in the world, which is great because I want them to be down – but I want them to get back up quickly.

“It’s been a great run and in a way it’s not the worst thing in the world because everyone was wondering when it would happen and it’s happened now.

“I want to see a reaction from everybody. I’m super positive and I know we can beat anyone in this league.”