Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver 'immensely proud' to see club break Football League points record

Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver celebrates Easter Monday's 5-1 thrashing of Gillingham. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

Easter Monday’s 5-1 mauling of Gillingham was the Sulphurites’ 16th victory in 41 League Two outings this term and moved them on to the 58-point mark.

That total is already one better than their previous best of 57 points, which they racked up on their way to a 17th-paced finish during 2020/21, their first-ever year in the Football League.

The following season, Town accrued 53 points as they finished (19th), repeating that again in 2022/23, when they ended up with 52 points having been involved in a genuine scrap for survival for the vast majority of the campaign.

Jack Muldoon rifles home Harrogate Town's fourth goal against Gillingham.

Less than 12 months on, Harrogate have however emerged as genuine play-off contenders for the first time since escaping non-league football, but Weaver said he is equally as happy with the club’s progress off the field as he is by his team’s progress on it.

“I'm immensely proud,” he said. “As I’ve said, on the pitch, it's built on hard work and honesty from everybody, and off the pitch it is the same.

"I’m very, very lucky to be part of a club that has grafters on and off the pitch. The people on the gate, the people in the offices, the groundsmen producing an immaculate playing surface.

"There’s Sarah Barry, who, no matter what the result, is a chief executive with a smile on her face and a warm character.

Harrogate Town players celebrate after coming from behind to take the lead against Gillingham.

"There's no back-biting in the club, and that's the essence of us, so I'm as proud as that of that, as I am of the best points tally ever for us in the Football League.

"But, it comes hand-in-hand, you know, and that vibe turns into points eventually, we believe, with the more good people that we get in the building working hard.”

Town’s total of 16 victories this term gives them a current win percentage of 39.02, by far their best since they secured their historic promotion from the National League in August 2020.

They won 16 (of 46) matches in 2020/21 (34.78%), 14 in 2021/22 (30.43%) and just 12 last term (26.09%).

Their remaining League Two fixtures pit them against Notts County (a), Grimsby Town (h), Sutton United (h), MK Dons (h) and Salford City (a).