Harrogate Town 'have to' follow crucial win up with a positive result at Walsall FC
Having failed to do so twice before in recent weeks, Harrogate Town simply have to follow up a crucial victory with another positive result when they visit Walsall this Saturday.
Four points from safety and in danger of being cut adrift at the bottom of League Two, the Sulphurites have responded impressively to beat Tranmere and Grimsby, but then gone on to lose their next game.
Facing the possibility of relegation out of the Football League if they lost to Colchester and results elsewhere went against them at the weekend, Simon Weaver's men again delivered when the pressure was really on as Jacob Slater smashed home a dramatic last-gasp winner.
That vital 1-0 success again left Town just a point shy of 22nd place, meaning that salvation is back within touching distance.
This time, boss Weaver knows that he and his troops need to capitalise because, quite simply, if they leave the Bescot Stadium empty-handed, it could be game over if enough of the teams in and around them at the wrong end of the table manage to win.
“We have to follow a win up with another good result, which is not something that we have been able to do in recent weeks," he told the Harrogate Advertiser.
"That is how we prove that we are good enough to stay at this level.
“The players had Sunday and Monday off to decompress but then it was back to work because we have to make sure it’s not a case of after the lord mayor’s show.
“That can happen when you’re down there in this kind of scrap. You have the ecstasy from beating Colchester the way we did, then it can just go flat. But we can’t afford for that to happen
"We have to go to Walsall and show the same resilience and stubbornness at the back as we did against Colchester, and then try to nick it. That has to be the aim."
So disappointed was he with Town's dismal display against fellow strugglers Newport in their previous outing, Weaver opted to make seven changes to his starting line-up for Town's clash with Colchester.
He also made a triple substitution early in the second period, and believes that continuing to freshen things up at this stage of the season will be necessary given how "jaded" his players have become as a result of their battle against the drop.
"I'm certainly pleased with the impact made by the lads who came into the side on Saturday," the Town chief added.
“We have looked a bit jaded because of the time of season and because we're in a relegation battle, and some of the lads are a bit leggy, and sometimes you have just got to stir the pot and try to get a reaction, and we did at the weekend.
"The lads were digging in, but we were finding it hard to get into our stride. I wanted that spark at the start of the second half, but it wasn't really happening so I made that triple change.
"I thought that the lads who came on did really well. They changed the momentum of the game, particularly Dukey [Stephen Duke-McKenna] driving up the right. And, in the end, we got the result we needed."