A mixed bag of a performance and I think Harrogate deserved to go through over all.
The first half was poor. Harrogate started brightly and confidently, playing decent football, whereas we were pretty disjointed. I thought the centre of midfield was the real problem, with very little supply to the strikers and not much creativity. The pairing of Lewis with Spearing did not really work: Lewis did not offer much on the ball and left Spearing pretty exposed at times, although I thought Jay himself had a poor game individually, perhaps due to lack of match fitness. Defensively we looked solid enough, with both full backs decent and Clarke very solid. I thought Khan was the best of the attacking players in the first period, always willing to get on the ball even if the final product was sometimes lacking.
After the break we played with more urgency, but I thought the performance really picked up when Banks and Payne came on. Banks gave us the vision and creativity we had been lacking in the middle, and Payne was a more effective partner for Vaughan than Ferrier had been in the first half. I thought Morris also came into the game more when Banks began to get on the ball. All of that said, Harrogate looked dangerous in the closing stages and we had a couple of let offs in the last few minutes of the game.
It is very disappointing to get knocked out of any cup competition in the first round. No need to panic, but plenty of room for improvement, particularly in our use of the ball and midfield creativity.