Harrogate Town v Cheltenham Town: Climb up the table is enabling Sulphurites to play with freedom

The Sulphurites are due to tackle Cheltenham on Tuesday evening, boosted by back-to-back victories which have seen them climb six places to 14th, where they sit 12 points clear of the bottom two.

And, while the Harrogate chief has reaffirmed that the club’s “purpose this season is to stay up”, he is hopeful that having put some serious daylight between themselves and 23rd-placed Grimsby, his players can continue serving up the kind of fearless attacking football which saw follow up a home win over Newport County with a 3-1 success at Crawley last time out.

“The gap certainly looks better from just over 10 days ago when it was six points,” Weaver said.

“You only have to have a game called off and one of the bottom-two plays and gets three points and suddenly you’re in such close proximity to the trap-door.

“But, 12 points feels and looks better and if we can just keep the momentum going, the more we increase the gap between us and the bottom two, the more I think this group of players will play with greater freedom.

“With the pressure being alleviated, hopefully we can go from strength-to-strength.”

With more snow and freezing temperatures forecast for Tuesday, an afternoon pitch inspection is expected to determine whether Town's clash with the Robins will go ahead.

If it does, then right-back Ryan Fallowfield could make his first start since Boxing Day having finally managed to shake off the after-effects of Covid-19.

"Ryan is bouncing around again in training so he'll be available for selection," Weaver added.

Centre-half Will Smith misses out through suspension as a result of his red card at Crawley, while goalkeeper Joe Cracknell and left-back Mitch Roberts are injured.

Strikers Mark Beck and Jon Stead and defender Dan Jones are all back in training and in the process of working their way back to full fitness.