Harrogate Town rated in top ten of English football’s biggest risers
A new study has revealed the English football teams that have climbed the pyramid the fastest over the past decade - and Harrogate Town feature in the top 10.
As part of their Happy Fan Index 2025, the team at OLBG have compared the average positions of each of England’s 92 professional clubs from the Premier League down to League Two to reveal the teams with the best (& worst) positional changes in the past five years.
After a meteoric rise under chairman Irving Weaver and manager Simon Weaver over the last decade from the bottom of the Conference North to the EFL League Two, Harrogate Town lie ahead of Sheffield Utd and Wrexham in the table.
In fact, The Sulphrites are rated fifth top behind Salford City (1), Luton Town (2), Stockport County (3) and Lincoln City (4).
But no club in England’s football pyramid has climbed the ranks faster than Salford City’
Starting with an average league position of 127.6 between the 2014/2015 and 2018/2019 seasons, City have an average league position of 79.0 in the last five years, an improvement of almost 49 places.
Salford earned successive promotions to the National League in 2018 and then to League Two in 2019, however, despite their rapid rise, the step up to League One has proved harder.
As for Harrogate Town, its average five-year Football League position (19/20-23/24) is rated 86.8.
Town’s next games are Bromley (away) on February 22 and Accrington Stanley (home) on March 1.