Harrogate manager Simon Weaver believes the club have made “massive strides” this season despite seeing their play-off hopes extinguished by a 5-3 home defeat by MK Dons.
The Sulphurites have, nevertheless, racked up a club-record number of EFL points in a campaign since their 2020 promotion and are also guaranteed to finish in their highest position.
A brace from 18-goal leading marksman George Thomson, following Abraham Odoh’s opener, proved insufficient as the visitors secured maximum points thanks to efforts from Alex Gilbey, Max Dean, Stephen Wearne, Emre Tezgel and Ellis Harrison.
Weaver said: “It was a crazy game really.
“To see the first goal go in after 30 minutes and then have so many after that and it could have been even more with the number of times we hit the woodwork. We looked very good going forward but we made some poor decisions defensively.
“But I can still take a lot of pride from playing such a great style of football throughout and creating so many chances against a good team who almost went up automatically. We have made massive strides this season without a doubt.”
Weaver is also running out of superlatives for talismanic 31-year-old skipper Thomson, adding: “He’s been immense this season and played an integral role for us throughout. You can just feel his presence on the pitch.
“He’s a good leader out there and on the training ground and he’s capable of scoring goals from all angles at the moment.”
The visitors were already guaranteed a play-off place prior to kick-off but Dons boss Mike Williamson hailed his team’s character after coming back from behind twice.
He also pointed to the squad’s strength in depth after Gilbey and Dean were replaced at half-time by Wearne and Harrison, who also found the net.
“I enjoyed the game because it was a good spectacle, especially for the neutral,” Williamson declared.
“It showed us we still have things to work on and it was a performance we can learn a lot from and that’s always the case when you’re in that relentless pursuit of excellence.
“But when things click we also look unstoppable. We know how good the boys are and they respond to every setback they have because they are an unbelievable group.
“I made changes and we are at a level now where competition is very good. Everyone who came into the team and on as a substitute was excellent.
“We want to breed a winning mentality and we’ll now sit down and discuss what we do for the next game, have a hard week’s training and make sure we keep up our momentum and confidence levels and keep improving in every moment.”
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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