Harrogate Town's record of three clean-sheets in their first four league games is ‘no mean feat’, says Simon Weaver

The Sulphurites beat Gillingham 2-0 away from home on Tuesday evening courtesy of goals from Matty Daly and Alex Pattison, and could have won by a much more convincing margin.

But, while the Wetherby Road outfit looked a real threat going forwards, they were equally impressive at the opposite end of the field, where they restricted their hosts to two shots on target and just the one clear goal-scoring opportunity.

Although the new season is still very much in its infancy and nobody at the club will be allowed to get “carried away”, the early signs are certainly encouraging given how bad Town were at the back last term.

In conceding 72 goals, their defence was the joint-second-worst in the division during 2021/22, prompting Weaver to overhaul his back-line over the close season and switch to a new-look 3-4-2-1 system in a bid to tighten things up.

Indeed, all three of Harrogate’s starting centre-halves at Gillingham – Miles Welch-Hayes, Kyle Ferguson and Joe Mattock – plus wing-backs Kayne Ramsay and Jaheim Headley are players that have arrived this summer.

And Weaver admitted after his side’s midweek victory down in Kent that he is “delighted” with most of what he has seen from his defenders thus far.

“We don’t get carried away, but it [Tuesday’s win] was built on another clean-sheet. That’s three out of four now, which is no mean feat for a new defence that has just been brought together,” he said.

"They are working ever so hard, but it’s never easy because every individual settles in at different rates. But they’ve all got the potential to be really good players for us.

"I’m delighted because it’s not easy to find that right balance, but having conceded over 70 goals last season it needed to be revamped, it needed to evolve and a big factor in evolving is keeping it tighter at the back, being more organised as a defensive unit and frustrating the opposition.

"When you frustrate against these bigger clubs, and fans do tend to expect victories against us, then they [the opposition] can start forcing the ball with their passing, and you could see evidence of that on Tuesday night.

"It was a professional job defensively and we’ve got the pace on the break. You can do really well in leagues if you play good football. But if you add that defensive steel and grit then you can accumulate some good points, which is our aim.”

Town certainly haven’t been faultless at the back during the opening weeks of the campaign, with some of last season’s failings when it came to dealing with balls into the box still very evident during their 3-0 loss at Crewe on August 6.

But Weaver believes that his players have already learned from their mistakes at Gresty Road.

"We looked at some of the coverage of the Crewe game because we expected Gillingham to play a similar system,” he added.

"It was important that we reflected on that game and did our jobs better. It’s very rewarding for us that we did, and hopefully we can build on this.”