Weaver sees bright future for Harrogate matchwinner Odoh

Harrogate boss Simon Weaver believes attacker Abraham Odoh can “reach for the stars” after ending a 20-game goal drought.

Odoh secured a 3-2 win for the Sulphurites over bogey side Salford, who they had failed to defeat in 12 previous league contests.

His clinical 80th-minute strike came after efforts by George Thomson and Sam Folarin had been cancelled out by visiting replies from Curtis Tilt and Matt Smith.

It was Odoh’s first goal since March for Rochdale, where he only netted four times in 91 outings.

But, on his number nine’s potential, Weaver said: “He’s been outstanding since coming to the club and his goal was the icing on the cake.

“He had a great effort before that and I think the goal has been coming. He’s a player who, with a little bit of belief, can reach for the stars.”

Harrogate went into the game as the lowest scoring team in Sky Bet League Two’s but they also hit the frame of the goal three times.

Weaver added: “I thought their first goal was a blatant foul and it got them back in a positive mindset.

“Their second then looked soft from our point of view, but it became a test of our mindset and, to win 3-2 after they came back at us, makes the three points feel even better.

“We said at half-time that, whoever got the next goal, I didn’t want us to change the gameplan. I wanted us to stay on the front foot and keep creating chances and that’s what we did.”

The defeat saw Salford extend their longest-ever losing sequence as an EFL outfit to a fifth match, heaping the pressure on manager Neil Wood with the watching Ryan Giggs strongly rumoured to be on the verge of succeeding him.

Wood pointed to an injury crisis that saw his seven-man bench boast just three EFL starts between them, declaring: “Nobody puts themselves under more pressure than myself. I know it’s part of the job.

“We were in the play-off positions for virtually the whole of last season. Now, we’ve hit a bit of a bump and have had a dip, but it’s coincided with eight or nine of our players being on the injury list and we have only got what we have got.

“In a way, that’s great for the young lads because they are getting experience and we will throw them in and give them a go. That situation won’t change in the next few weeks, so everybody has to dig in together.”

Wood’s team have now failed to keep a clean sheet in 11 fixtures and he added: “I’m not sure it was a penalty and I think you could tell that by the reaction of the players around the incident.

“But we got ourselves back level and, then, we went long and lost the ball when we know their main threat is on the counter-attack.

“They have some athletic players going forwards and it was a really soft goal to concede but we are not defending well as a team and that’s a big problem that we’re trying to address.”