Being top of the table will provide Harrogate Railway with 'extra motivation' to keep performing, says Rob Youhill
Rob Youhill believes that going top of the table so early in the season will provide his Harrogate Railway players with extra motivation to keep performing.
The Starbeck outfit have backed up their manager's pre-season insistence that they were good enough to challenge for promotion with an impressive start to 2025/26.
Unbeaten in all eight of their NCEL Division One outings to date, the Rail have won four on the bounce without conceding even a single goal and currently occupy pole position.
Having produced an impressive display on their way to a 3-0 success at Ilkley in midweek, they did the same again at Station View on Saturday afternoon as Route One Rovers were defeated by the same score-line.
Harris Eggleston set Railway on their way at Ilkley when he converted a ninth-minute penalty, with Alex Ingham then going on to net a second-half double.
At the weekend, Ingham broke the deadlock against Rovers shortly before half-time, then Dom Creamer bagged twice after the interval to wrap things up.
And a delighted Youhill is confident that the way his team has hit the ground running will only serve to fuel their promotion push.
"Top of the league is where we wanted to be sitting, and now that we are, it is an extra motivation to keep on playing like we have been," he told the Harrogate Advertiser.
"As I said before a ball was kicked, I was confident that we could challenge at the top end of the division this season because of the side that we have put together.
"But, it is one thing me believing it and us saying it, and another thing entirely the lads going out and delivering that. So fair play to them for what they've done so far.
"The big thing is, we have had to work really hard to get to where we are now. And the lads know how hard they've had to work and they understand now that they have to keep doing everything that we've done so far if they want to stay top.
"Obviously we have got to try and enjoy it and ride that wave, but at the same time, we want the lads to use this start to the season to help ensure that we keep winning games of football."