Harrogate Town’s January recruits really are making a case for the defence

January recruit Matty Foulds made an impression at both ends of the field as Harrogate Town kept a clean-sheet on their way to a 2-0 win over Doncaster Rovers last time out. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

But, at one end of the field at least, they have looked rather a different proposition in recent weeks.

Since Simon Weaver opted to deploy a completely new-look back-four comprised entirely of players recruited during the January transfer window for last month’s 1-1 draw at promotion-chasing Salford City, the Sulphurites suddenly appear a lot more solid defensively.

For that game, and the six that followed it, Harrogate lined up with Toby Sims, Anthony O’Connor, Tom Eastman and Matty Foulds across the back, while Mark Oxley returned between the sticks.

Toby Sims has made Harrogate Town's right-back position his own.

That they have taken eight points from those seven fixtures and suffered just the one defeat owes far more to the way in which Weaver’s men have defended than it does to their attacking play.

Just the six goals have been scored during that sequence of matches, but crucially only seven have been conceded - and three of those came all one game, a 3-0 loss at Swindon which the Town boss subsequently wrote off as a “blip”.

And rightly so, as the Sulphurites have generally been so much better in and around their own penalty area.

The stats are there to prove it.

It’s now three clean-sheets in their previous five matches, compared with just two in their 19 League Two outings prior to Weaver deploying that particular quintet of Oxley, Sims, O’Connor, Eastman and Foulds.

And an average of one goal (1.00) shipped per game, as opposed to the worrying rate of more than one-and-a-half goals per game (1.57) they were going at during their first 28 league clashes of the campaign.

A small step indeed, but their defensive record (currently 51 goals against in 35 matches) has gone from being the second-worst in the division to the fourth-worst, ahead of Rochdale (52 in 35), Crawley (57 in 33) and Hartlepool (63 in 35).

There is also progression evident within the recent seven-game spell itself. Opposition chance creation in Town’s last three matches is far reduced, with Doncaster, Gillingham and Northampton managing just four shots on target between them compared with the seven that Swindon registered and eight racked up by Grimsby.

This tightening up has provided the foundation for Harrogate to climb to 19th position and pull nine points clear of the drop-zone, with boss Weaver certain that his team’s improvements at the back are benefiting players in all areas of his squad.

“I think that there has been a growing confidence in the defence,” he said.

"We have been more dogged, we had a blip at Swindon, but it’s nice to talk about a blip rather than a recurring theme, which it had been.

"But, the majority of the last 10 games, we have had a solid look about us, a gritty look, which is where we want to be, where we need to be.

“We can’t just hope to get through by out-scoring teams. We have to give the lads up front the confidence that if they do their job and score one goal or two goals in the game, then that should be enough for us to get the points.

“Back-to-back clean-sheets gives us renewed confidence.”

This Saturday, Town travel to fellow strugglers Crawley for what is a huge match in both team’s seasons.

Victory for Harrogate would move them 12 points clear of the second-from-bottom Red Devils, though a win for Scott Lindsey’s men would leave them just six points behind the Sulphurites with two games in hand.