Harrogate Town have to maintain their midweek standards if they are to get a result at Accrington Stanley, insists Simon Weaver
Simon Weaver has stressed that Harrogate Town will need to deliver the same level of performance as they did at League One Lincoln City in midweek if they want to leave Accrington Stanley with a result this Saturday.
Beaten by newly-promoted Bromley on the opening day of the 2024/25 season, the Sulphurites bounced back in style when they upset the Imps in Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup first round tie.
This weekend will see them attempt to get up and running in League Two against an Accrington side who are not in great form having lost all five of their pre-season fixtures, then both of their two competitive openers.
John Doolan’s team suffered a 4-1 mauling at Doncaster Rovers first up, then went down 3-0 away to Tranmere Rovers in the Carabao Cup, though Weaver insists that his players cannot afford to take Stanley lightly.
“The challenge, first and foremost, before we face them, is making sure that there’s no complacency,” he said.
“I don’t think that there will be, but we played with an edge on Tuesday night and the group we have got to realise that there can be no slacking in that department. They know that we have got to apply ourselves with aggression and real energy.
“We will be drilling that home in training and in our presentation about what Accrington are about. We have got to master ourselves first - and then the opposition.
“Accrington have normally got an edge, so we have got to look to compete and match that.
“We can’t be over confident because Accrington can soon beat you and they’ll be celebrating in the changing room on Saturday night if they achieve the three points and we are left on zero. So it should take no motivation to come out fast and make sure that we really drill down on what we’re about.”
Accrington have seen a number of key members of last season’s squad move on in recent months, with Jack Nolan, Joe Pritchard, Tommy Leigh and Rosaire Langelo all snapped up by some of the fourth tier’s more ambitious sides.
Just like Harrogate, they are among the bookmakers’ favourites for the drop this term, and such a heavy defeat on the opening day has only compounded matters following a difficult summer.
Relegated from League One at the end of 2022/23, Accrington finished the previous campaign 17th in League Two, four places and six points worse off than the Sulphurites.
They did however have the better of the three meetings between the sides that took place last season.
The corresponding fixture at the Wham Stadium also took place in mid-August and saw the Lancastrians emerge 2-1 winners in fairly dramatic fashion.
Leading 1-0 through Sean McConville’s first-half goal, Stanley had Seb Quirk sent off on 82 minutes and Warren Burrell pulled Harrogate level just 60 seconds later.
But the 10-man hosts snatched victory in the eighth minute of stoppage-time when Nolan rifled home a 30-yard free-kick.
Accrington then visited Wetherby Road for an EFL Trophy tie in early October, triumphing 5-3 in an entertaining encounter which saw both teams rotating their squads.
The most recent face-off between the sides did however end favourably for Harrogate, on Boxing Day.
Nolan fired Stanley into the lead 11 minutes into the second half, though Jack Muldoon equalised for Weaver’s men just six minutes later.
And George Thomson then decided the contest three minutes into injury time.
Kick-off at the Wham Stadium this Saturday afternoon is at 3pm.