Why Danny Cowley believes Portsmouth with need to be at their best to progress in the FA Cup against Harrogate

The Blues play host to League Two Harrogate Town (3pm) with a place in the third round up for grabs.

And the former Lincoln City boss admitted it won’t be an easy task against the Sulphurites despite their bottom-tier status.

Simon Weaver has transformed the club from a lowly National League South side to an established Football League club, with two promotions in the past three years

Town also lifted the 2019-20 FA Trophy under his stewardship, while comfortably maintaining their EFL status last term with a 17th-placed finish.

So far this term Harrogate have continued to impress and currently occupy a play-off place in the League Two table after gaining impressive victories over Walsall and Scunthorpe - beating the latter 6-1.

Pompey are no strangers to the ability of clubs lower down in the football pyramid, after edging past non-league Harrow Borrow in the first round.

A full-strength Blues could only record a 1-0 victory against the seventh-tier outfit thanks to Marcus Harness’ first-half strike.

And Cowley is out to avoid a repeat of the same happening again this afternoon.

He said: ‘Our approach is exactly the same. It’s the FA Cup, the greatest cup competition in the world.

‘We’re in the second round with a home draw and we have huge respect for Harrogate, I think Simon Weaver has done an amazing job with his dad who is the owner/chairman.

‘They’ve had two promotions in the last three years and they won the FA Trophy in the summer for the 19-20 season - but they broke Nicky’s and my heart in the process by beating Concord Rangers.

‘They’ve just gone from strength to strength as a club. I think they’re a team that optimises their manager and they’re really humble and hardworking with a fantastic skillset.

‘We anticipate the toughest of games and fixtures and we know we have to be at our very best to get on the right side of it.’

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