Simon Weaver attributes Harrogate Town's relegation from League Two to woeful points return during first 30 games of 2025/26 season

The Sulphurites’ six-year stay in League Two was brought to an end by Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Barnet, with their failure to win that game meaning they finished the campaign second-from-bottom of the pile and a point shy of safety.

Trapped inside the drop zone since December, back-to-back wins over Walsall and Colchester in their two previous outings meant that the men from Wetherby Road headed into the final day of the season with a very real chance of survival.

And with fellow strugglers Crawley and Tranmere Rovers both failing to win their respective matches on Saturday afternoon, a victory against the Bees would have proved sufficient to keep Town in the League.

But although they conspired to lose a contest they ought to have won due to one suicidal moment of defending and their inability to finish off some glorious second-half chances, boss Weaver insisted that his side’s demotion was a result of their shocking form between October and February.

Having kicked-off 2025/26 with an opening-day win at Bristol Rovers and remained unbeaten in the three matches which followed, the positive results then began to dry up.

Consecutive victories did arrive in late September, however injury-ravaged Harrogate then went more than four months without registering a league success – a staggering run which spanned 20 matches and saw them collect just four points from a possible 60.

Having reshaped their squad in January and brought in nine new players, it was no coincidence that a shock 2-1 home win over an in-form Cambridge United team who will be playing in League One next term materialised the week after the winter transfer window closed.

Town avoided defeat in each of their next three games, and went on to record a number of crucial victories over the weeks that followed to keep themselves just about in the fight.

But, in Weaver’s eyes, the damage had already been done.

“We had the opportunity to get out of it today, but wasn't really about today, it was about those first 30 games where we fell short,” he said. “The first 30 games gave us such a mountain to climb, and there's reasons for that.

"It made it really difficult coming out of that period with 18 points, but the last 15 games we have been right on it. Performance levels have gone up and we made a hell of a fight of it.

"We had a good January window, it was a chance to replace those who didn’t quite step up to the mark, or were injured for quite some time. We had recurring injuries and it felt like we needed snookers at that point.

"To take it to the last day, we have probably exceeded expectations from where we were at Christmas.

“I think we have got a really good team at the minute, and it’s not indicative of how we performed during the first half of the season, which is a real shame for these boys who have performed for us recently.”

With so much at stake on Saturday afternoon and achieving a positive result of critical importance, Town could have done without young centre-half Cathal Heffernan gifting Barnet a fifth-minute lead.

His awful attempted pass back to goalkeeper Mark Oxley gifted Kabongo Tshimanga a clear run on the home goal, and led to Callum Stead having the chance to finish into an empty net.

The hosts responded well, however, and got themselves back on level terms when Bryn Morris converted a 29th-minute penalty after Jacob Slater had been fouled inside the Bees’ box.

The early stages of the second half saw Harrogate create a number of excellent chances to take the lead, but after Shawn McCoulsky had rattled the underside of the cross-bar, Tom Hill, Tobias Brenan and Jack Evans all wasted good opportunities.

Barnet then landed a devastating 82nd-minute sucker punch through substitute Phil Chinedu, and although the Sulphurites continued to press hard for another goal during the closing stages, salvation was not forthcoming.

"It wasn’t a good start for us,” added Weaver as he reflected on Saturday’s contest. “The first four minutes, we came out of the traps fast, then that one mistake was punished.

"But, the response was brilliant, including from Cathal. The reaction says a lot about the group of players, and the team.

"The support was brilliant throughout, and they helped us respond, did the fans.

"We scored the penalty and were right back in it. We started the second half on the front foot, we hit the bar and had a couple of other opportunities, but one of them has got to drop in.

"There goal was a sucker punch, and when that went in, it made it a very difficult task.”