Harrogate Town 1 Rochdale AFC 1: Finishing on a high note important for Sulphurites, says Simon Weaver

Neither the Sulphurites nor their already-relegated visitors had a great deal riding on Bank Holiday Monday’s fixture, a fact which showed during a first-half display by the hosts which left their manager “extremely frustrated”.

But the Wetherby Road outfit upped their game after the interval, Toby Sims’ neat far-post finish from Kazeem Olaigbe’s left-wing cross cancelling out Jimmy Keohane’s 24th-minute opener.

And having seen his team come out on top in three of their previous four matches to haul themselves clear of the relegation zone, Weaver was keen for Town to sign off on a high note.

"It was important to carry on that momentum which we have been building,” the Harrogate boss said. "I wanted to end with a bang and a convincing victory.

"There’s no such thing as a dead rubber in football because every one of us is continuously being judged and we are thinking about next year and who can build on the last 15 games and take us up towards the next bracket of teams.

"And you can only do that with greater consistency, regardless of whether there is pressure on or not. We have to have greater consistency next season.

"I think it’s a mentality thing. I said to the players at half-time that I felt the most frustrated that I had been at any point during the last 15 games because they have been delivering under pressure.

"But I was pleased with the second-half performance and I thought that we thoroughly deserved our equaliser, but just couldn’t quite find that killer touch in the end.”

Keohane fired Rochdale into the lead just past the midway point of the first half when he took a touch and finished off Tyrese Sinclair’s low cross from close range.

Town should have been level before the interval, however, Olaigbe firing wide of the mark having been played clean through on Richard O’Donnell’s goal by Sam Folarin.

Ian Henderson’s cross was deflected onto the top of his own cross-bar by the sliding Tom Eastman early in the second period, though that was about as good as it got for Dale, who faded as the afternoon progressed.

With Harrogate starting to boss proceedings, Folarin saw a low strike deflected narrowly wide and Luke Armstrong had a header saved by O’Donnell.

The equaliser which their improved performance deserved eventually materialised on 74 minutes, Olaigbe swinging a cross over from the left which Sims met first time on the edge of the six-yard-box.

Eastman almost won it for Town with a header from a corner which O’Donnell did well to push away, but in the end the spoils were shared.

"The first half was flat,” Weaver added. “We lacked a bit of quality and we were below the levels that we have set during the majority of the last 15 games.

"After the break, we improved. There was more aggression, more appetite to get on the ball and create, we were landing on second balls more and just acquitted ourselves better.

"I thought that we were the better team but we didn’t have the required quality in the final third at times.”

Monday’s result means that Town finish 2022/23 19th in the League Two standings, nine points clear of the bottom two.