Harrogate Town forced to temporarily halt group training sessions by National League

Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver was left frustrated after the club was forced to stop training. Picture: Matt Kirkham

League chief executive Michael Tattersall contacted the club on Sunday to inform them that they needed to halt group sessions at their ground until an inspection of the CNG Stadium had taken place.

The league wanted to check that Town had sufficient measures in place to guard against the spread of coronavirus.

An inspection was subsequently carried out and Simon Weaver and his players will now be able to resume training on Thursday morning having passed with flying colours.

Harrogate only reported back to Wetherby Road on June 16, more than three months after the 2019/20 season was suspended, then abandoned, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The club re-started group training once it was confirmed that promotion play-offs would take place in July, with the majority of their first-team squad in attendance at the CNG Stadium on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday last week.

They were however unable to train this Monday and Tuesday, much to Weaver’s disappointment.

“It’s been a frustrating few days after the National League stopped us from training because they wanted to check the protocols and procedures that we had in place,” the Town boss said.

“Garry [Plant] got a call from Michael Tattersall on Sunday and we had to stop otherwise we might have been in trouble.

“They [the National League] hadn’t read through the protocols we had sent them last Wednesday, so we’ve had to pause everything. We’ve been stopped in our tracks.

“The person who came to check what we were doing said that measures we have in place are excellent. Everything that Rachel [Davis – club physio] has done is absolutely spot on, so she deserves a lot of credit.

“We’ve followed the government guidelines to the nth degree and now we’re just looking forward to getting back on with our preparations on Thursday.”

Town were the first National League club to begin training following the government's easing of coronavirus restrictions.

They are currently in phase one of their return-to-play protocol, with squad members working in groups of no more than six people.

Play-off rivals Notts County, FC Halifax Town, Barnet and Boreham Wood began their play-off preparations this week, with the latter reporting no positive coronavirus test results on Wednesday afternoon.