Harrogate Railway boss Rob Youhill sets sights on promotion ahead of 2025/26 season

The former Harrogate Town winger is preparing for his third term in charge at Station View alongside joint-manager Fraser Lancaster.

The duo more or less started from scratch when they took charge of the Rail in the summer of 2023 after Mick O’Connell left for Tadcaster Albion and took the vast majority of his first-team squad with him.

Two mid-table finishes have followed, yet although they briefly flirted with the NCEL Division One play-offs in 2023/24, Railway did not come close to mounting any kind of a push towards the top five last term.

But, having assembled a squad that he feels is full of quality and has a good blend of youth and experience over the summer, Youhill is confident that his team have what it takes to be challenging this time around.

“The aim is definitely promotion - without question, that is what we want,” he told the Harrogate Advertiser.

“Ideally, we would like to go up automatically by winning the league, which is difficult, a really big challenge. But, if not, then it needs to be through the play-offs.

"If we are not competing at the top of the table and we do not end up getting promoted, then we will be annoyed as a management team. We are setting our stall out early and setting those expectations from the word ‘go’.

“But, I think that it is realistic for us to have this vision and this goal and that it is appropriate because of the caliber of players we have brought in and because of the players that we have kept."

Railway kicked off what has been a productive summer of recruitment by signing experienced central midfielder Ben Parkes, who came through the youth ranks at Station View, from local rivals Knaresborough Town.

Centre-half Elliot Holmes also returned to the club from another NCEL Premier Division outfit, Tadcaster Albion, before fellow defender Harry Lee followed Parkes in signing from Knaresborough.

Winger Dom Creamer was next to make the switch from Manse Lane, with right-back Charlie Lack, former Harrogate Town Academy midfielder Alfie Lee and centre-forward Alex Burton also putting pen to paper.

"We were looking for players with experience, who have been there and done it, who have played in higher leagues and therefore have the quality, and lads from Harrogate and the surrounding area,” Youhill explained.

“And it was really important that we were putting round pegs in round holes, so that is why we have signed the players that we have.”

On the thinking behind the club’s recruitment strategy, Youhill added: "We have grown a lot in the two years that we have been here.

"Although that growth might not be obvious from the outside because of the league position last season, growth can be measured in a lot of different ways.

"We have learned a lot and some of the ways our growth as coaches can be measured is in the way we’re looking to play and how we have recruited.

“We’ve learned about the types of players you need to bring in to be successful in this division, about who the players are who can win you a league.

"And we’ve come to understand that you need the personnel to be able to play in a certain way. When we first came in, we had a lot of young lads and we thought the way forward was to try and play beautiful football every week, when in reality, that wasn’t the best approach.”

Railway continued their preparations for Saturday’s season-opener at home to Worsbrough Bridge Athletic (3pm) when they played out a 2-2 draw with neighbours Knaresborough in midweek.

Sam Clothier handed the hosts a 14th-minute lead before superb strikes from Luke Stewart and Slater Barnes turned the game on its head before half-time.

But, Alex Ingham netted early in the second half to level things up.

“I think that anyone that went to that game would probably say that we did more to win the game than Knaresborough did, so I’m pleased with the performance,” Youhill continued.

“I think that we were the better team on the night. We scored two good goals and they scored two absolute worldies, but there are plenty of positives to take from a game against a team from the league above.”