Harrogate Town v Barnet FC: Simon Weaver backs Sulphurites to ‘deliver’ under pressure in another ‘must-win’ game
Simon Weaver has backed his Harrogate Town players to deliver under pressure “one last time” in Saturday’s “must-win” showdown with Barnet.
The Sulphurites head into the final weekend of 2025/26 second-from-bottom of League Two and needing to better the result of one of the three sides directly above them in the table to avoid relegation.
A draw would actually be enough to save the men from Wetherby Road should either Crawley or Newport lose their respective fixtures, however beating the Bees naturally increases Town’s chances of escaping the bottom two.
And having seen his players come up with the goods when it really mattered during recent clashes with Walsall, Colchester and Grimsby, Weaver believes they can can do so again in what will be the club’s biggest game in six years as a Football League outfit.
“We’ve had five wins in the last few months where I think all of them were must-wins,” he told BBC Radio York. “So when the pressure has been on, the lads have really delivered.
“We have had to go out and get wins, and we have managed to do that recently. And we have to do it once again because we are in the bottom two at the minute.
“Saturday really kept us in it, with Newport scoring so late to win [against Oldham], the Walsall game really ended up being a must-win.
“The lads are showing character at exactly the right time. Both the goals for and goals against columns have improved markedly - and they needed to, to take it to the last day.
“And hopefully we can go on to succeed one last time. The approach will just be that we have to go out and get that win, and if we control what we can control and get it, then that puts a lot of pressure on those elsewhere.”
In theory, Harrogate could actually lose to Barnet and still climb above 22nd-placed Crawley, but only in the extremely unlikely event that the Sussex outfit lose by at least six goals.
A draw would be sufficient to save Town, provided that Crawley lose at home to fourth-placed Salford City, who need a victory to keep their hopes of automatic promotion alive, or Newport lose at Barrow.
A success for the Sulphurites would ensure that they do stay up, unless Crawley, Newport and Tranmere – at home to sixth-placed Grimsby – all manage to win.
But, beating a Barnet team who are ninth in the table, have only just missed out on the play-offs and thrashed Gillingham 6-2 last time out is not going to be easy.
The Bees are unbeaten in their previous eight matches and have won six of those fixtures, including each of their last four.
They have scored 23 goals during that run of games, while Harrogate have only managed 38 all season.
The last time the sides met, they played out a 1-1 draw in North London, Jack Muldoon heading home a second-half equaliser for Town.
The Sulphurites have come out on top in both of their previous two meetings with Barnet at Wetherby Road, 2-0 in August 2018, and 2-1 in October 2019.
Saturday’s fixture gets underway at the Exercise Stadium at 3pm.