Harrogate Railway better equipped to realise promotion aim in 2026/27, insists Rob Youhill
Rob Youhill believes that his new-look Harrogate Railway side is better equipped to realise his aim of promotion than last season’s squad was.
The Starbeck outfit came up just short in their bid to escape NCEL Division One in 2025/26, qualifying for the play-offs but losing out at the semi-final stage.
Boss Youhill was adamant from the start of the previous campaign that the Rail were good enough to challenge at the top end of the table, and said at the start of the season that he was targeting the league title.
The men from Station View kicked-off the new term with a comprehensive 4-1 home win over South Leeds on Saturday afternoon, and their manager is confident that they can go on and mount another promotion push.
"Our aim is to go up again this season,” Youhill told the Harrogate Advertiser. “The ambition is the same as it was 12 months ago.
"We just want to go that one step further, and I think that we are a better side than we were last year, so I don’t see any reason why we cannot do that.
"We lost some quality players over the summer, but when I look at who we have brought in, I think that we are a bit stronger overall.
"That said, I also believe that this league is better this season. There are more big teams paying big money and more good players have stepped down to play at this level.
"So that is going to make it interesting.”
Railway fell behind with just four minutes on the clock when former player Nathan Cartman struck for South Leeds.
But the hosts drew level in the 36th minute through Alex Burton, who smashed home a cross from the right wing.
Centre-half Sam Cook moved them into the lead four minutes into the second period before captain Sam Drake set up Sam Clothier to make it 3-1.
The icing was then put on the cake late on when striker Burton squared for Jack Mason to round things off.
“We were fine even after going a goal down,” Youhill added. “We just didn’t really get going during the early stages but that is because we had quite a few new players and the links between some of the lads weren’t quite there initially.
"Pre-season has been good to us, but we’ve had lads away, so some of the players are still getting to know each other’s games and I think it will take us a few more games to get up to speed.
"But, there wasn’t much to say at half-time. I thought we were playing well enough that if we kept doing what we were doing, then we would go on to win the game.
"We looked really fit and every single one of the lads worked so hard, so I was pretty pleased.”
This Saturday, the Rail visit Doncaster City for a 3pm kick-off.