Harrogate Railway's emphatic opening-day win over Worsbrough Bridge Athletic a result of 'hard' pre-season

The Starbeck outfit triumphed 3-0 on Saturday afternoon against opposition who narrowly missed out on the NCEL Division One play-offs last term and are fancied to challenge again in 2025/26.

A 41st-minute own goal, followed by Sam Clothier’s penalty put the hosts in control by half-time, with new signing Alex Burton adding a third late on to wrap things up.

And Youhill insists that he was confident that the Rail would come away with all three points given how well their preparations had gone in the build-up to their season-opener.

“I wasn’t nervous at all before the game because I knew how well prepared we were, I knew how hard pre-season had been,” he said.

"Success is measured in different ways, and people might look at our pre-season and think ‘you haven’t won a game,’ but they don’t know what was going on behind the scenes.

"We tried to make it as hard a pre-season as we possibly could, so that when we come into games like this, we are ready. The last three years we have been in charge, we have won the opening game 3-0.

"We were exactly where I thought we would be on Saturday. I could tell when we trained on Thursday how itching they were to get going, so I didn’t really have to say much before the game.

"I was really pleased with the performance.”

Youhill has set this stall out early this term, and been clear that he expects Railway – who finished in the middle of the pack last time around – to earn promotion to the NCEL Premier Division.

And, while he accepts that he cannot read too much into one result, he insists that what he witnessed against Worsbrough Bridge bodes well for the weeks and months ahead.

"People will go ‘hang on, you finished 12th last year, what gives you the right to say you’re going to get promotion?’,” the Rail boss added.

"I think it’s an understanding of the league, an understanding of what we have brought in, but I’m not going to say that Saturday was an example of that, because we have won 3-0 on the opening day of the last two seasons.

"But, I think that we are better-equipped to carry it on this season and, as a management team, what we learned on Saturday is that we were really well-prepared and we’re really fit.

“And so, when it comes to games like this, we are going to be able to compete with teams who have bought some very good players and are paying some good money because we have a different level and a different gear completely.”