Harrogate Town opinion: It's not just the Sulphurites who are in a better place than they were last Christmas

I very nearly bailed on writing a column this week, having emailed the Harrogate Advertiser’s sports editor on Tuesday night to tell him that I’d hit a brick wall in terms of inspiration.

But, a chance conversation on the Wednesday morning with a fellow dog walker helped to put things into a sense of perspective.

I happened to mention how depressing things were at the moment, with the new super-infectious variant of Covid-19 sweeping in just in time to ruin another Christmas, and the general mood amongst people I know seemingly downbeat.

I was on a particular downer because some dear friends of ours had been due in Leeds to play a gig and it had now been cancelled as a result of infections amongst the bands, not to mention previous gig attendees.

Not that my wife and I had been sure we were going to go anyway, the club being underground, unventilated and it being the first time we’d considered even venturing into such an environment for 22 months.

It turns out that we’re not alone and many people had been feeling the same way, as crowds at the gigs on the tour so far had been down in numbers up to that point.

My fellow dog walker replied that he knew a few people who were feeling the same lethargy and weren’t even bothering to put their Christmas decorations up this year. I didn’t know he’d been round to our house.

“Tomorrow’s a different day,” he said, and we both agreed that you just have to get on with it in the hope of a better tomorrow. Hence I walked straight home and penned this very piece you’re reading now.

Not even the cat having left the contents of this morning’s breakfast all over my desk deterred me.

And, despite the general gloom and thoughts of ‘here we go again’, that’s just what people are doing.

You only had to witness the long, orderly queues at vaccination centres yesterday to realise that the majority of the population are just getting on quietly with what they have to do to help protect themselves and others.

How it must infuriate the loud minority of unfortunates comparing vital public health measures to life under the Nazis and bemoaning their loss of liberty to infect others by having to wear a piece of cloth over their mouths for five minutes in a shop.

With the knowledge we’ve gained, the vaccines and the developing treatments, we’re in a far better place than we were last Christmas, and it helps to remember just that at a time like this.

What has all of this to do with Town you may ask? Well everything, it seems.

The home defeat to high-flying Northampton – in essence a League One team in waiting – was more of the same in some ways, yet it was a vast improvement on the midweek loss to Forest Green Rovers.

Indeed, Town could have found themselves gaining at least a point with a touch more quality in both boxes.

The players seem to have hit a brick wall at Wetherby Road currently, and there are echoes of the slump in form towards Christmas last year. We don’t seem to be able to break well-drilled defences down and are making costly errors at the other end, but we’re in a far better position squad-wise and position-wise than last season.

Furthermore, quiet action to bolster the squad over the Christmas and New Year period may be enough to slide the dial back towards the play-offs.

You’re always going to get supporters who are cross we aren’t five points clear at the top, of course, but they will always be in a vocal, small minority whilst Town sit happily mid-table in lofty League Two.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the two home defeats to the teams occupying first and second in the table was the slightly lower-than-expected crowd figures, but again I wish to draw the analogy with my earlier musings on low gig attendances, as more and more people quietly choose to act with caution ahead of the festive season.

My daughter and I were looking forward to travelling down and cheering the team on at Luton in the New Year, it being our first foray onto a supporters’ club coach this season, but that decision’s now on hold until we see how the current situation develops.

With infections amongst footballers starting to impact on fixtures again and the situation only seemingly on a downward trajectory, it’s sometimes easy to forget that a sense of fatigue can set in amongst the playing staff too. Players are, after all, only human like the rest of us.

The only certainty at times like these is uncertainty but, to coin another well-worn cliche, we can all only take things one game at a time.

Now, where did I put the Christmas decorations?

Footnote: With apologies to the supporter on Saturday who said he appreciated my weekly column as “we all need a sense of humour in the current situation”. All I can offer this week is a sense of stoic resolution in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds.