Harrogate Town v Colchester United: Sulphurites 'have to go for it' in must-win game
Simon Weaver has instructed his Harrogate Town players to “just go for it” ahead of this Saturday’s do-or-die showdown with Colchester United (3pm).
Four points from safety with just three games remaining this season, the Sulphurites quite simply have to win at the weekend if they are to have any chance whatsoever of beating the drop.
A dismal defeat at fellow strugglers Newport County last time out left the men from Wetherby Road staring down the barrel at relegation from the Football League, and they now find themselves firmly in the last chance saloon.
It is very possible that bottom-of-the-table Town have already left themselves too much to do, but their manager insists that giving up on their League Two status is not an option.
“The attitude has to be that we keep going," Weaver said. "I don’t give up as a person. I’m relentless and just keep going and I expect the players to do the same. We have to lick our wounds.
“I have been trying to convey to the players that we have just got to go for it. It is as simple as that.
“The attitude has always been let’s go for it, get bodies forward and balls into the box and play good football.
“It is the inconsistency that’s killing us and we need to find consistency because we want to be at this level of football.”
Weaver could be without as many as six players due to injury this weekend, but is hopeful that number will end up being much lower.
Forward Aiden Marsh and central midfielder Ben Fox will not play again this season, with influential winger Ellis Taylor not expected to feature either after developing another thigh issue during the latter stages of Town’s loss at Newport.
The severity of fellow attacker Reece Smith’s own thigh problem – sustained during training last Friday – is yet to be diagnosed but is thought to be fairly significant.
The good news is that forward Jack Muldoon and midfielder Tom Hill are closing in on a return to action.
Colchester travel to North Yorkshire 12th in the table, but still with something to play for, with the play-offs just about within their reach.
Nine points outside the top seven, their fate is very much out of their own hands, but Danny Cowley’s troops know that only a victory at the Exercise Stadium will keep their promotion dream alive.