'Confidence' key for Shawn McCoulsky and Harrogate Town heading into final-day decider
“Confidence” will be the key for both Harrogate Town collectively and Shawn McCoulsky as an individual when they take on Barnet this weekend.
The Sulphurites need a positive result from their final game of the season if they are to beat the drop, but head into Saturday’s match fresh off the back of consecutive victories over Walsall and Colchester.
Still trapped inside the bottom two after Newport netted a 108th-minute winner against Oldham, Simon Weaver’s team are reliant on at least one of their fellow strugglers dropping points to enable them to escape the relegation zone.
But, McCoulsky insists that he and his team-mates just need to worry about taking care of their own business, and harnessing the much-needed positive momentum they have managed to generate in recent weeks.
“As footballers, we thrive off confidence, so going into the last game off the back of two wins, it’s nothing but confidence for us,” he told BBC Radio York.
"We have just got to keep ploughing on. We can only concentrate on ourselves and not worry about results around us.
"We’ve been in the bottom two for quite a while, so I think that the main thing is just concentrating on ourselves and just winning that game against Barnet.
"Anything can happen in football, so we have just got to prepare right and try to score as many goals as possible.
“It’s a massive game, and there’s probably going to be more drama, but hopefully we come out on the happy side of that.”
McCoulsky, who had managed just the one goal in his first 28 Town appearances since joining the club from Maidenhead United in the summer, produced two excellent finishes either side of half-time to secure that priceless 2-0 win at Walsall.
And he admitted that delivering a key performance in such a crucial game has provided him with a huge boost.
"It’s massive for me to get the two goals,” the 29-year-old added. “It has been an up and down season for myself, obviously being out injured for a bit.
"As a striker, all you want to do is score goals and help the team. So, coming back into the team this week, I am so thankful that I was able to score those two goals.
"I just tried to go out there with a bit of freedom, confident that I was going to play well and score. Having confidence in yourself is the main thing, and thankfully it went well for me.”