Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver 'excited' by prospect of entertaining Bromley FC on opening day of 2024/25

The Sulphurites will kick-off their fifth League Two campaign on August 10 against the side promoted from the National League via the play-offs last term.

And Weaver insists that Town will be targeting a fifth consecutive opening-day victory in the Football League as they aim to build on their highest-ever league finish of 13th last season.

"For us, we're just pleased that we're at home. It's always an exciting day, the opening day of the season, and everybody goes into it with the spring in the step,” the Harrogate boss said.

"Every team is hopeful. Certainly the managers are hopeful that it's their team's season to really excel. And we're no different, you know, we really want to go into that first day and play well in front of our home fans.

"I think both teams will be very positive, and I know from having watched Bromley in the play-offs that they’ve certainly built it on physicality and, first game of the season, they'll be as energetic as anyone else.

"In Andy Woodman, I know that they've got a passionate leader. He’ll be desperate for them to succeed and get points on the board early.

"But so will we, because the opening day we are at home, but then we've got two away games. So we certainly want a positive start.”

Just as Town did in the summer of 2020, Bromley secured a first-ever promotion to the Football League by winning the National League play-off final at Wembley.

Coming off the back of such a high, the Sulphurites made a flying start to 2020/21, thrashing Southend United 4-0 away from home in their maiden League Two outing.

But, while he concedes that the Ravens will come into August 10’s fixture with momentum behind them, he dismissed any suggestion that the first weekend of the season was a bad time to be playing them.

“It's not too long ago that it was us away at Southend on that opening day,” he added. “And, you know, you go into it with momentum as that promoted team.

“I don't know if it’s a bad time to play Bromley. I mean, from our own experience, we probably got the right fixture at the right time [in 2020] because Southend were struggling on and off the pitch. And that was evident in the early exchanges of that first game.

"Hopefully we're a different outfit from what Southend were on that day because you don't want to encourage early momentum in the game to a newly-promoted team when, you know, they're obviously full of excitement.

"We will have to stand up to their strengths, like in any game, but we will hopefully be knocking the ball about with positivity and real energy and we can cause them problems.”

Looking further into the future towards Town’s standout fixtures of the 2024/25 season, Weaver continued: “You obviously look at the Bradford games, the Doncaster games, the local derbies.

"And then you look at Christmas and it's Grimsby away on Boxing Day and then New Year's Day we've got Salford at home. So they're good fixtures for the family, you know, so we're not we're not traveling to the back of beyond.

"At this stage, it's impossible to predict the make-up of the league. But certainly we're entering into it with renewed energy from a good break in the summer.”