Simon Parkes 'really happy' with Knaresborough Town's start to 2025/26 season

The Manse Lane outfit kicked-off their NCEL Premier Division campaign with a goalless draw against Horbury Town, then staged a late fightback to beat Albion Sports 2-1.

They also managed to hold higher-division Bridlington Town in the FA Cup extra preliminary round, before bowing out of the competition in a replay that ultimately had to be played twice.

And although Boro haven’t been perfect as far as their results are concerned, Parkes feels they are in a good place.

“I am really happy,” he told the Harrogate Advertiser.

“Obviously it is still very early days, so I’m not getting carried away, but we did a lot of work during pre-season on our identity and a way of playing, and I think that things are looking very promising.

“I think that we have been playing pretty well so far. Our structure has been brilliant and I don't think we look like conceding many.

“Also, if you look at the squad, I think you can see that there is strength in depth.”

Parkes’ only real criticism of Boro’s performances so far is that they have not been clinical enough in front of goal.

“We’ve missed some good chances,” he added.

“If you look at the first FA Cup game against Bridlington, and the replay that we lost 2-1, I don’t think it was obvious who the team from the higher league was.

“I thought that we were the better side for long periods. We had some really good opportunities at Manse Lane in the 0-0 game and should really have been a couple of goals ahead in the replay before they scored.

“We missed one-on-ones, two or three really clear openings. We’ve played some good football and are opening teams up, we just need to be more ruthless.”

After Knaresborough lost their initial FA Cup replay at Bridlington 2-1 in extra time, the tie then had to be played again after it was discovered that the match officials had made a mistake in denying Parkes a fifth substitution in or around the 106th minute of the game.

They eventually went on to lose the third instalment of their trilogy with the Seasiders 4-1, and were without a game on Saturday.

But, that free weekend allowed Parkes and his coaching team the opportunity to undertake some valuable work on the training pitch ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Thackley (7.45pm).

“It was actually quite nice to have a week free to get some extra work into the lads,” Parkes continued.

“It has meant that we have been able to continue working on the things we were trying to embed during pre-season and reinforce those ideas about our structure and the way we want to play.”