Crawley Town V Harrogate Town: Sulphurites appreciate 'huge' significance of clash with fellow strugglers

Harrogate Town drew 2-2 on their last visit to Crawley Town. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

The Sulphurites make the long trip down to Sussex 19th in the League Two standings and nine points clear of the relegation zone following their 2-0 midweek success at Doncaster Rovers.

Victory for the Wetherby Road outfit at Broadfield Stadium would see them open up a 12-point gap between them and their hosts this weekend, though a win second-from-bottom Crawley would leave them just six points behind Harrogate with two games in hand.

"We know the magnitude of the game, we know that it’s hugely significant,” Weaver said.

"We can hurt them, which in any other season it wouldn’t be our sole intention of the season, but because of where we are now in the table, and where they are, we have got to go for it and try and get the points and at least make sure we don’t lose the game.

"I don’t mean to sound negative by that, but we’ve got to realise that what we have been good at recently is denying the opposition and being relentless with the effort – and there can be no relenting on that, we have to keep going.

"We want to make it a 12-point gap, they [Crawley] have to understand that we will be after that, and all our players have to aim for that.

"And, with that, we have to be really fired up and raring to go.”

Scott Lindsey’s Red Devils find themselves stuck in the bottom two having failed to win any of their previous seven League Two matches, taking just one point from the last 21 on offer.

By contrast, Harrogate have lost just one of their last seven and head into Saturday’s fixture buoyed by a 2-0 victory at Doncaster Rovers in midweek.

Weaver has however warned his charges that there is absolutely no room for complacency within the Town camp.

"We feel better because we’ve just had that three points at Doncaster,” he added.

“But there is a tendency in the bottom third of any league to get one result and everyone goes just that little bit easier on it. And then, before you know it, you get sucked back in.

"So, there’s enough motivation for me, the staff and players to really be a bit more self-aware than that.”

Last season’s meeting between the sides in Sussex ended in a 2-2 draw, with Harrogate 3-1 winners at Broadfield Stadium back in 2020/21.

The game ended goalless when the Red Devils visited North Yorkshire during the early weeks of the current campaign.

Saturday’s clash kicks-off at 3pm.