Harrogate Town planning permanent memorial to late super-fan Johnny Walker in addition to tributes ahead of Mansfield Town clash

A supporter for more than 70 years, Mr Walker's life will be celebrated when the League Two Sulphurites host Mansfield Town at Wetherby Road on Saturday afternoon.

A minute's applause will take place in his memory prior to kick-off and he will feature on the front cover of the match-day programme.

But, Town have confirmed that they are also in discussions over a lasting tribute to Mr Walker inside the EnviroVent Stadium.

"Johnny was a much-loved character, he lived and breathed Harrogate Town and I think everybody who knew him or met him realised that very quickly," said Hamilton Mattock, the club's Fan Engagement Manager.

“He was so proud to call himself a Town fan and someone who gave up a lot of his time to help out around the place over a long period of time.

“I remember he was always the first one in the 1919 bar on a match-day, and more often than not he was the last one to leave as well. He just loved it here and he will be greatly missed.

“This Saturday we’ve invited Johnny’s daughter, Claire, his two grandchildren and other members of the family into hospitality for the game and of course we will be holding the minute’s applause before kick-off in his memory.

“And we are also looking at a permanent memorial to Jonny inside the ground. We are talking to his family at the moment about the best way to remember him as a club.”

Mr Walker started watching the club - then known as Harrogate Hotspurs - with his father during the 1940s.

Back then, he was a pupil at New Park Primary School and Town played their football in the West Yorkshire League, quite the contrast to where they now find themselves - in the fourth tier of English football.

Speaking to the Harrogate Advertiser back in 2020 with his beloved Sulphurites on the verge of sealing an historic promotion to League Two, Mr Walker said: “Before my life goes, I would like to see Town in the Football League proper.

“It’s been my one ambition since I was a kid and my dad first took me to a Harrogate Town game."

Sadly, he would never realise that wish due to the deterioration of his health in recent years

“The awful thing is that Johnny never got to watch an EFL game at Wetherby Road due to him not being well enough during the latter years of his life,” Mattock explained.

“All those years supporting the club, following them home and away, and he wasn’t able to see a League Two fixture.

“And because of Covid, like the rest of the fans, he wasn’t able to see his team at Wembley either. That would have been so wonderful for him to go there with Harrogate Town.

“If you’d have said to him 10 years ago that one day we’ll be playing at Wembley and then in the Football League he would have just laughed, I’m sure.

“It’s really sad that he never got the chance to see something that would have meant so much to him."

Town’s League Two clash with Mansfield kicks-off at 3pm on Saturday.