Exeter City's Josh Coley determined to 'express' himself under Simon Weaver during Harrogate Town loan spell

The 24-year-old winger arrived at Wetherby Road on a season-long loan deal from Exeter City late on transfer deadline day (Thursday) and made his debut against Sutton United less than 48 hours later.

Although the Sulphurites went down 2-1 in South London, Coley delivered an encouraging display on the right flank, adding some much-needed flair in the final third and hitting the woodwork with one outrageously skilful strike at goal during the first half.

And, it is the opportunity to “express” himself under a manager who has tried repeatedly to acquire his services that persuaded the former Norwich City attacker to swap League One for League Two.

“From when I was back at Maidenhead two years ago, I think that Harrogate were the first Football League club to show interest in me. It was around January (2021) time, they tried to sign me,” Coley told the Harrogate Advertiser.

“It didn’t work out as Maidenhead wanted to keep me on to see what would happen, but I know that Simon Weaver has been interested in me for some time.

“I think he had tried to loan me from Exeter previously, so this felt like it was the right place to come, a place where the gaffer knows about you, wants you, likes how you play.

“It’s good to sign a new deal at Exeter and to have the faith of the gaffer [Matt Taylor] to let me come and play games and do what he knows I can do, but on a consistent basis. But, my focus is on this season now.

“Now it is just about playing games and expressing myself."

Harrogate’s supporters will be hoping that the moment of magic which saw Coley almost find the back of the net after flicking the ball over the head of an opponent and crashing a sweetly-struck volley against the cross-bar is a sign of things to come when he does indeed get further chances to express himself in the final third.

Reflecting on his near-miss and asked whether wonder strikes were something he could be relied upon to produce, he said: “I wouldn’t go as far as wonder goals, but hopefully goals.

“It would have been the best one I’ve ever scored. Woz [Warren Burrell] put the ball through and I just thought about trying to get it under control. I saw their centre-half coming and realised he was bigger than I was. I couldn’t go around him so I had to go over him.

“Whilst it was up there, I just thought ‘I’m going to hit it and see what happens’. On another day, it probably goes in. On another day, if I scuff it probably goes in. I probably hit it too well.

“It’s just one of those, but it would have been a good one, one to remember. But, it was just nice to finally play back-to-back games and play in my position.”

Having only been unveiled as the third of four deadline-day recruits a couple of minutes before Thursday night’s cut-off, Coley had limited time to get acquainted with his new Town team-mates prior to making his debut against the U’s.

“I haven’t trained with the boys, it was my first time meeting everyone,” he explained immediately after Saturday’s League Two clash.

“I first met everyone at the hotel on Friday night for pre-match. All the boys were great, they all introduced themselves.

“I knew I was starting the game on Saturday morning at breakfast. I didn’t think that I would be playing, but obviously I knew that the gaffer wanted me involved as soon as possible, which is great for me because I want to play games.

“It will take some time to gel, but it was a good start, I think, at a hard place to come.”

Elaborating on exactly why he feels that playing Sutton at Gander Green Lane is such a difficult challenge and why, even though Town lost there at the weekend, he thinks that the way they performed bodes well moving forwards, he continued: “Sutton is probably the hardest place I’ve played at. I’ve played here a few times before and it’s never easy, it’s never nice.

“My body is beaten. But you expect to be beaten when you come to places like Sutton. It’s probably the hardest place to come in League Two.

“So, you expect to get beaten up, but you have to stand up and be counted and I think that we did that. Even when we were down to 10 men, we were still there making passes, creating chances, so there are a lot of positives to take from it.

“Credit to Sutton. They’re very good at doing not a lot and when they’ve got something to hold on to, they’re very good at doing that as well. They know how to play, especially in front of their own fans, but I thought that we were a little bit unlucky.

“I think that there is a lot for us to take from that and to build on, especially with the new signings coming in.”

Saturday’s defeat was Town’s fourth on the bounce in all competitions and sees them drop to 19th in the League Two standings ahead of this weekend’s home clash with Carlisle United. Kick-off at the EnviroVent Stadium is at 3pm.