Harrogate Town v Boreham Wood: 'Our luck has to change' - Simon Weaver

The Wetherby Road outfit have suffered more than their fair share of misfortune so far this season, with the sending-off of Jon Stead at Torquay United the latest in series of key moments that have gone against the Sulphurites.

With Town 2-1 up at Plainmoor, the veteran striker was shown a second yellow card for handball, despite clearly being struck on the shoulder from point-blank range.

That follows on from another refereeing decision that saw Stead’s winning ‘goal’ at AFC Fylde harshly chalked off and a heavily-deflected strike by Woking’s Shaun Donnellan which wrong-footed goalkeeper James Belshaw and ultimately condemned Harrogate to a 1-0 defeat.

“Our luck has to change at some point and I think that it will,” Weaver said.

“We’ve had such a spate of things going against us and it’s proved very costly, but it can’t carry on like this.

“You can’t blame everything that has gone wrong on bad luck, however we haven’t had any good fortune yet this season.

“We had plenty at the start of last season. There were games where I came away thinking ‘how have we got anything out of this one?’, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“We are always looking at what we can do better and analysing our performances and although I think that overall we’ve been playing pretty well, we can be better.

“What I want us to be able to do is take luck out of the equation by sticking to what we are good at and delivering more polished performances.”

Town will be looking to bounce back from last weekend’s disappointment down in Devon when they entertain Boreham Wood at the CNG Stadium on Saturday (3pm).

Luke Garrard’s team did a job on their hosts in the corresponding fixture last term, stopping Weaver’s men from playing with an organised, physcial performance that resulted in them leaving North Yorkshire with a 1-0 victory under their belts.

Just like Town, the Wood have won three, drawn two and lost five of their opening 10 National League fixtures thus far, but come into the game boosted by a 3-1 triumph over Dover Athletic last time out.

“They’re undoubtedly a good team and yes, we expect them to be nice and organised like they were when they came here last season, but they’ve also got some very talented players,” Weaver warned.

“That said, if we keep doing the right things, keep creating chances and keep 11 men on the pitch then I’m very positive about our chances.”

Lincoln City loanee Alex Bradley is expected to return to the Town midfield having recovered from an ankle problem that has kept him out of the previous three matches.

Stead will be absent through suspension, with Weaver revealing that Mark Beck is in “pole position” to replace him up front.