If FA Cup victories were awarded for effort, then Harrogate Town would have eased into the fourth round at Leeds. Unfortunately for them, industry only gets a team so far in football and it was the hosts who eventually proved their quality to progress.

Largie Ramazani scored the only goal of the game to send Leeds through against a team 68 places below them in the Football League pyramid. Harrogate could not have given any more, fighting for 90 minutes to keep Leeds at bay and falling just short.

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There were six full internationals in the Leeds team, while the Harrogate CVs boasted Leek Town, Nuneaton Borough and Kingstonian. If the task ahead was not obvious before kick-off, then it was abundantly clear when the team sheets were compared.

The Harrogate manager, Simon Weaver, had told his players in the build-up to be “all-in” and work for one another. His demands were met and more by his League Two strugglers, who arrived with one win and six defeats in their past eight league matches. Even at their level, the Sulphurites are a defensive team and went to extremes against the Championship leaders.

“I’m immensely proud of the whole evening from our perspective,” Weaver said. “I thought the players were right on it. It’s a massive moment on our journey and we wanted to impress, but with that brings some nerves as well. I wanted them to really embrace the moment. You can want it, but sometimes it doesn’t happen and players can be fazed by it. I didn’t think that at all tonight.”

Leeds enjoyed 80% possession in the first quarter of the match but through a mixture of discipline, defensive organisation and resilience, Harrogate kept them quiet. The first half followed a pattern of Leeds passing the ball from side to side, hoping to create some space within the yellow and black walls ahead of them, but they were playing too slowly to cause problems. The Harrogate goalkeeper James Belshaw was eventually tested when Ramazani was afforded some rare space inside the area and drove a shot across goal but the former office worker got down well to stop it and Mateo Joseph hit the post.

If ever there was a simple indication of Harrogate’s ambitions in this match, it was neatly summed up in one stat: they had a solitary touch in the Leeds box in the entirety of the first half, not that they were concerned as they went unscathed. They even had a claim for a penalty when Josh March went down under pressure in the box. “I asked the player who went down, Josh March, he said: ‘Oh yeah, certainly, he clipped his heels,’” Weaver said.

Every tackle and block was cheered by the more than 4,000 Harrogate fans in the away end, while the home supporters were less generous with their words when the visitors agonised over every goal kick and free-kick, as they tried to run down the clock.

Considering the quality on the pitch for Leeds, it felt inevitable that they would find a sufficient opening and punish any lapse from Harrogate. It arrived just before the hour mark when Israel winger Manor Solomon used his cunning and speed to get to the byline and picked out Ramazani to head home from close range. It was a moment of relief for Leeds.

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Harrogate could have been forgiven for throwing the towel in at this point but they continued to defend manfully and battle for every ball, although they lacked a cutting edge and failed to test Karl Darlow. Belshaw went up for a free-kick in the final minute of stoppage time as Harrogate desperately sought an equaliser but it was not to be. Harrogate left with plenty of pride, even if Leeds got the glory.

“The main thing in a cup competition is to get into the next round,” Daniel Farke said. “It is never easy because for them it is the game of the season or for some the game of their lives. You have to respect the quality of the opponents. They defended really well and deep and with a knife between their teeth. We had to tire them out and that is how the goal came. Well done to Harrogate, I think they played an excellent game but I am pleased to be in the next round.”