Harrogate Town 'keeping their heads above water' despite run of one win in 13 matches

The Sulphurites may well have struggled for victories of late, however they have lost just one in six, those five draws sufficient to move them six points clear of the relegation zone.

Twenty-first-placed Town’s manager is, of course, acutely aware that his players need to start picking up victories sooner rather than later if they are to beat the drop, but he says that he has been encouraged thus far by their ability to “keep their heads above water”.

He told the Harrogate Advertiser: “Of course the lack of wins is a concern for me, but not as much as it could be because we’ve produced some good performances of late, we’ve been picking up points and we’re stretching out that gap between us and the bottom two.

“We can take great heart from the last six games because they are all valuable points that we have earned. These are building blocks. We are getting results and it’s not all about winning every game.

“Keith Alexander, who was my manager at Lincoln City, used to say that ‘through the hard times you just have to make sure that you keep heads above water’. It’s about knowing what it takes to do that.

"There has to be stubbornness and strong will. You need those things and we have shown that we have those qualities in the bear-pit that is the bottom end of the Football League. The lads have been sticking to the task.

"Rarely do you see teams playing their way out of trouble. It’s about making sure you win the war first and earning the right, then your quality can shine through. So we have to keep coming out between now and the end of the season prepared for wars of attrition.”

Harrogate have indeed managed to keep their heads above water so far this term. Despite coming out on top in just seven of their 34 League Two matches thus far, they’ve not found themselves inside the bottom two at any stage.

And Weaver insists that he now feels more confident about the make-up of his squad and their chances of survival than he has done at any other stage of 2022/23.

"I think that as a team, we have had one dip in six games, away at Swindon last week, which happens to probably every team at this level bar Leyton Orient,” added Weaver following Saturday’s goalless draw at home to Gillingham.

“Other than that, we have been very much in contention to win a lot of those other games. The effort is undoubted and there’s a real team spirit right now.

“We look gritty, we look a proper team. It’s refreshing how many of the new lads from January have really integrated into what we want. I’m a lot happier in my mind about the squad. We’re more representative of what we have been in terms of values and effort levels and energy.

“We earned promotions and an FA Trophy win on trusting the players to go out and put a shift in that makes the town proud and makes the supporters proud.

“It’s a lot more of a typical Harrogate Town team that we have got now. There’s still a lot of hard work to do, but everyone is level-headed enough to know that it’s not cracked yet by any stretch and there are some hard games to come, starting on Tuesday night.”

Town make the short trip to Doncaster knowing that a victory could lift them two places to 19th in the table and open up a nine-point gap between them and the relegation zone.

Awaiting them are opponents who currently sit in 13th position having won 14 of their 33 matches following their relegation from League One last term.

Danny Schofield’s men came away from in-form Stockport County with a more-than-useful goalless draw on Saturday, but had lost their previous two games, meaning that they have failed to score in any of their last three.

Prior to their recent three-game run without a win or a goal, Rovers had however won three on the spin without conceding.

Kick-off at the Eco-Power Stadium on Tuesday night is at 7.45pm.