Harrogate Town v Huddersfield Town: Simon Weaver aiming to build on pre-season positives

The League Two Sulphurites followed up last week’s 2-0 defeat to League One Sheffield Wednesday with a 3-0 reverse at the hands of Championship Rotherham United on Tuesday evening and now face a team that was one game away from returning to the Premier League last season.

But, Weaver says he is relishing the opportunity to pit his charges against another high-quality opponent.

“Huddersfield were right there in the Championship last year weren’t they. They could easily be a Premier League outfit this season,” he said of the beaten 2021/22 play-off finalists.

“It’s a real toughie isn’t it, another big test for us, but that’s okay. There are no points at stake here, it’s just another opportunity for us to try and improve our style of play and for the lads to increase that cohesion.

“What I’m looking for is a continuation of the things that we have done well during the first couple of friendles. Everything was pretty good from the halfway line forwards against Rotherham.

“We created opportunities against a pretty-much full-strength Championship team despite us having a number of trialists in our ranks.

“We had two goals disallowed for tight offside calls and created two other great chances that we should have taken. So there’s been lots of positives.”

On the flaky defending which saw Town fall 2-0 down inside 12 minutes, Weaver added: “Obviously we have to be better at the back. It’s about nailing the basics.

"For the first goal we have got to be stronger, more physical and aggressive defending a set-piece. We can't be letting opponents get across us inside our box. In the build-up to the second goal, the ball should have been cleared into the stand before the chance for them to attack us down their left even developed.

"It is basic stuff and of course we have to improve. But I’d rather it’s happening now during pre-season so we have time to put these things right.”