Harrogate Town close in on second new signing of the summer

The League Two Sulphurites unveiled former York City goalkeeper Pete Jameson on Monday, and he is set to be the first of many arrivals at Wetherby Road during the close season with eight players out of contract and three more placed on the transfer list.

And manager Simon Weaver is confident that a deal for another defensive option will be concluded imminently.

“We are very close to confirming a second signing, a centre-back,” he revealed to the Harrogate Advertiser.

His side having finished 2021/22 with the joint-second-worst defensive record in the division, strengthening at the back was always going to be a priority for Weaver this summer.

And after the Town chief stated last month that he was targeting players with League One and Two experience, speculation on social media regarding the club’s alleged interest in Carlisle United’s Rod McDonald appeared to make sense.

The 30-year-old centre-half has spent the last seven seasons in the third and fourth tiers with Northampton, Coventry, AFC Wimbledon and most recently the Cumbrians, playing more than 120 league games.

But, Weaver says McDonald will not be joining Harrogate over the coming months.

“We are not after Rodney,” he added.

“He is a good lad but we have targeted other centre-backs to be honest.”

With full-backs Ryan Fallowfield and Lewis Page among the eight players not to be offered new contracts and centre-half Leon Legge and the versatile Nathan Sheron having been transfer-listed, Town are particularly light on defensive options heading into the new campaign.

Veteran Rory McArdle has agreed a one-year extension, but with Will Smith recovering from surgery on a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and ruled out of the opening months of the season, the ex-Bradford City man and Warren Burrell are currently the only defenders Weaver will have at his disposal when the new term kicks-off on July 30.