Simon Weaver praised his “grown-up” Harrogate Town side as he refused to allow want-away striker Luke Armstrong’s future to overshadow their opening day win at Doncaster Rovers.
Sought-after Armstrong asked not to be involved in the Yorkshire derby as he seeks to secure a move away.
But Town pressed on without the forward and his stand-in Jack Muldoon scored a second-half penalty to secure the 1-0 win.
“We deserved the win,” manager Weaver said. “We knew it would be tough and the crowd got right behind their new manager, but we had an amazing following as well and they have gone away happy and we are ecstatic to get a win for them.
“It was a proper grown-up performance from us. We closed down with intensity and looked composed and a threat on the ball.”
Speaking on Armstrong – who has attracted interest from Scotland and Leagues One and Two – Weaver said: “We have had offers and interest in him and we’ve also offered him a renewed three-year contract because we feel he deserved that as he’s been a fantastic player who we’ve loved having around.
“But, on Thursday, he came to us with his agent and told us that he wanted to go and didn’t think he’d be in the right mindset to play in this game.
“That was disappointing but Jack Muldoon stepped into the breach and can be proud of his efforts.
“Also, if Luke is to leave, two things also need to happen – we need to receive a significant fee and find a replacement for him.”
Grant McCann was disappointed in the performance from both his side and the referee as his return to Rovers ended in defeat.
McCann was critical of referee Scott Tallis’ decision to award Harrogate the spot kick when Joseph Olowu was adjudged to have fouled Abraham Odoh and also felt Rovers themselves should have had penalties for fouls on Tommy Rowe and Tyler Roberts.
He said: “I thought we were poor in the first half. We just weren’t quite getting there to everything.
“Credit to Harrogate, I thought they were better than us in the first half and that’s disappointing for me to say.
“I knew it was going to take time but I didn’t expect the team to be that poor in the first half. We were way off it in every aspect of our game.
“You don’t win football games if you don’t get the basics right. Second half we showed more fight but nowhere near the levels we can be.
“Their penalty was really disappointing for us because Joseph Olowu clearly takes the ball and it deviates to the right. It’s a disappointing day for us.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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