Returning Josh Falkingham will bring much-needed 'passion' and 'charisma' to Harrogate Town

Harrogate Town captain Josh Falkingham, centre, congratulates team-mate Alex Pattison after he found the net during last weekend's 2-1 loss at Colchester United. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

That is the view of Sulphurites boss Simon Weaver, who felt that the impact of his skipper from the substitutes’ bench was the only real positive to be taken from last weekend’s 2-1 loss at Colchester.

Falkingham, 32, has endured a stop-start season thus far having picked up a couple of new injuries following his return from a long-term lay-off at the end of August, but will surely now be among the first names on the team-sheet for this weekend’s crunch clash with fellow strugglers Hartlepool United.

"Josh Falkingham’s first tackle was a yellow card, but he meant business, so having the skipper back was long overdue because he showed charisma, which was a big plus,” Weaver said.

Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver watches on from the sidelines during his team's recent defeat at Colchester United.

"Playing for Harrogate Town, you have to have character about you because in the likely order of things, it’s hard to sustain Football League status without it.

"The size of the fan-base, you come to big stadiums, the facilities, we are getting outmuscled, so we need characters like Josh Falkingham, who aren’t afraid to, nor embarrassed to show a level of passion that quite frankly is foreign to a lot of the younger players these days.

"I was looking for passion [at half-time at Colchester], he’s a lad who has been here throughout the full-time journey and understands that attitude comes first and Josh Falkingham and Warren Burrell did bring that.”

Weaver’s sentiments have been echoed by Town’s three-goal leading scorer Alex Pattison, who feels that fellow midfielder Falkingham is the “perfect person” to help drive the Sulphurites on towards some much-needed points.

Alex Pattison found the back of the net 11 minutes into the second half of Harrogate Town's 2-1 loss at Colchester United.

He added: “He’s quality, he’s the voice on the pitch, he gets everyone motivated, tells everyone where to be.

"I played a lot with him last season, we’ve got a good partnership and I’m glad he is back, to be honest.

"We need someone like that back in the team to give us a kick up the backside and get us going – and he is the perfect person to do that.”

Harrogate head into Saturday’s fixture (12.30pm) 22nd in the table, winless in 10 matches and having taken just one point from the last 24 on offer. Hartlepool are only one place better off, but have been beaten just once in four league outings since Keith Curle was appointed their manager in mid-September.