Harrogate Town's goalkeeper problems start to ease after a week of worry for Simon Weaver

The Sulphurites took on Mansfield last Saturday with no substitute gloveman on their bench due to Mark Oxley having broken his hand and academy youngster Harvey Giles contracting Covid-19.

Things then took a worrying turn on Tueday when Jameson, who had previously reported that he was feeling “under the weather”, wasn’t well enough to train with the rest of his team-mates.

With Oxley expected to be out of action until after Christmas and Giles never having played a senior game for the club, Town boss Simon Weaver admitted he was a worried man prior to his first-choice goalkeeper returning to training on Thursday.

"Pete has been under the weather, he’s had flu-like symptoms, but the saving grace was that this happened towards the start of the week rather than the back end,” Weaver said.

"If it had been Thursday or Friday it would have probably been panic stations, but fortunately Pete was well enough to come back in on Thursday.

"He’s feeling a lot better, and Harvey, our young lad, is back having had Covid-19, so we’re in a stronger position now.

"We wanted to have two really good senior goalkeepers competing for a place this season and we had that until Ox hurt his hand. Unfortunately it’s just just realistic or practical for a club of our size to have three keepers on the books, so it has been a bit of a worry over the last few days.”

Emergency loans are available in circumstances where a team has no senior goalkeeper available, but Town would only be eligible to make such a move if Jameson was deemed incapable of playing.

Weaver did however make enquiries about the possibility of bringing someone in on a seven-day deal before his number one’s condition improved.

"We have spoken to a club about a loan keeper just in case," he explained.

"But because you can only get an emergency loan if you have no senior goalkeepers available, it would have been a pretty pointless exercise going ahead and bringing someone in as Pete would’ve had to be left out.”

Speaking after last weekend’s 3-0 success over Mansfield, Weaver revealed that he was on the look-out for a free agent to bring in on a short-term contract to provide cover for Jameson.

And although he has been actively searching for a suitable back-up option this week, the Town chief has had no luck.

"We’ve been looking around, but there aren’t too many free agents out there,” he continued.

"There are some agents who just specialise in goalkeepers and we’ve been in touch with one of them.

"There was one player available who we thought could come in and it was looking like we might be able to do something, but now he has got injured, so that’s the end of that.

"And given the time of year, you have to wonder what anyone who is currently without a club has been doing for the last six months and why they haven’t been able to find a club between July and now.”

Town travel to Hartlepool United in the second round of the FA Cup this Saturday, 3pm kick-off.