Alex Pattison lucky to be available for Harrogate Town's trip to Barrow after being targeted at Gillingham

That is the view of Sulphurites chief Simon Weaver, who feels that his influential midfielder was singled out for some unnecessarily rough treatment away at Gillingham in midweek.

The 24-year-old set up Town’s first and scored their second during a deserved 2-0 success on the road and caused the Gills all sorts of problems with his running power and ability to break at pace from midfield.

As a result, Pattison found himself on the receiving end of a number of industrial challenges from home players, some of which Weaver believes could have caused serious injury.

"Alex should be okay for Barrow, thankfully,” the Harrogate boss said.

"He got taken out a number of times on Tuesday night and it seems like he is being punished this season for being a good player.

"He’s obviously a really pacy player, a real threat for us running with the ball. He was bursting past opponents on Tuesday and was brought down by some bad challenges.

"Some of them were malicious. There was one near the end that was a bad offence where Patto’s been caught halfway up his shin. I guess you can take it as a compliment on one hand, but we’re watching on from the sideline worrying that one of these tackles is going to see him ruled out of our upcoming games with an injury.

"He has got a few bumps and bruises, but we’ll ice him up and no doubt he’ll be okay as he’s a very strong lad.”

And Weaver does not believe that Pattison is the only one of his attacking players who has suffered at the hands of opposition defenders this term.

"Luke Armstrong seems to have been getting the rough end of the stick as well,” he added.

"He’s taken some knocks up there, but he just seems to keep bouncing back up and keep getting on with it.

"He’s always having his shirt pulled, often getting fouled and never seems to get any decisions from the match officials.

"We’re watching this happen from the side of the pitch and I’m sure the officials are seeing the same things, but he doesn’t seem to get anything from them.”

Town head to Barrow fresh off the back of Tuesday’s victory down in Gillingham, their second success in four League Two matches this term and one which lifted them up to eighth place in the table.

And, despite being ranked alongside Harrogate as one of the bookmakers’ favourites for relegation from the fourth tier, the Cumbrians have been in even better form during the early weeks of 2022/23.

The Bluebirds currently sit in fifth position with nine points from a possible 12 and having won two out of two at home thus far.

"I think that this one will probably be our toughest test yet,” Weaver said.

“So we’ve just got to make sure that we are as professional on the pitch as we were on Tuesday night and give ourselves the best opportunity to do well.”