Harrogate Town look to cash in with double time over Bank Holiday weekend

Town entertain Nuneaton Town on Saturday before heading for a Yorkshire derby at recently relegated FC Halifax Town on Bank Holiday Monday.

Nuneaton delivered Town’s heaviest defeat of last season’s record-breaking campaign when former Premier League striker Marlon Harewood spearheaded a 3-0 win at the CNG Stadium.

Town ended up pipping the Midlanders for a place in the end of season play-offs and Weaver was wary that the full-time outfit might have reason to raise their levels again on Town’s 3G.

FC Halifax have yet to be beaten since dropping into the National League North although Town got the better of the result on their last trip to the West Yorkshire outfit.

Weaver, whose side snatched three points in the dying moments at Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday, said: “We have had a look at both teams and know how they line up.

“It’s going to be two totally different football philosophies but two where it will be a great test for us.

“It will be a bit of a marker for where we are as a team.

“Can we go from doing it on a ground with an athletics track and small changing rooms, to at home against a team we lost to last year, and then at a full-house in Halifax who are smashing everyone out of sight?

“They are all different challengers but I want to know the lads that can do all three.”

One player Weaver won’t be able to call upon is Andy Gascoigne following his one-month loan move to Frickley Athletic.

The midfielder burst onto the scene at Town during the 2014/15 season when he scored five times in his first six matches. But he has yet to hit the same heights since recovering from a broken leg suffered in a 4-1 win over Chorley and has found himself in and out of Weaver’s plans.

Gascoigne started in Town’s opening home clash against Boston but has been shoved out by Saturday’s match-winner Warren Burrell, new signings Andi Thanoj and Joe Leesley and Lloyd Kerry and Tom Platt.

Weaver said the former Scunthorpe man remains in his plans.

The boss added: “He does have a future and I messaged him on Friday to say just that.

“He is looking to get some games and stake a claim for a starting place. For that to happen he needs games to get him to the level he needs to.

“He’s a good player, there’s no question about it. But I have to try and look back at the end of the season and see that he didn’t just sit in the stand for a month.”