From the Terraces: Harrogate Town boss Simon Weaver has some difficult decisions to make at Crawley Town

Monday morning is all the better in this household if Harrogate Town have won on a Saturday, so I must have been pretty near impossible to live with recently.

This Monday morning finds me whistling as I take the dog out and greeting all and sundry with a cheery smile. With no game in midweek, I’ve got a full week to bask in the glory of Town’s best display of the season so far.

It’s true we witnessed four goals at a very poor Southend United first match in, and watched great victories at Bradford, Exeter and Mansfield, amongst others away from home, but it was the manner of this latest 2-1 triumph over high-flying Newport County that made it stand out for me, especially given the pressure to start collecting three points.

The Welsh team had looked to be running away with the league until a recent run of poor form had seen them slide to fifth, albeit with games in hand, so it was an opportune time to be playing them.

Even so, it looked as if things might be going the way of previous home games for Town, as our two most-recent Achilles’ heels, defending at corners and failing to close down on the edge of the area, combined to see us go one goal down after 16 minutes.

It briefly looked as if Town heads might drop, after a decent, high-pressing start, but we should know this squad better by now.

Slowly, Harrogate clawed their way back into the game, looking full of intent every time they went forward, and Josh March’s first-half equaliser was both well-executed and well-deserved.

Come the second period and Town simply raised their game in search of a winner. Newport could barely get out of their own half for a good 25 minutes, as the home players laid siege, winning virtually every ball in midfield and seeking to attack at every opportunity with pace, both down the wings and through the middle.

The visiting manager, Michael Flynn, stated afterwards that Town did the “horrible side of the game a lot better” than his team and, although he’s right, it served to give Simon Weaver’s players a solid platform on which to go on and entertain.

If eyebrows had been raised prior to kick-off, when top-scorer Jack Muldoon was rested in favour of March, not so now. Weaver’s decision to stick with Aaron Martin upfront was vindicated by a man-of-the-match performance, in which he assisted the first and broke his drought by heading in the winner from a George Thomson corner.

I think I can safely say that a goal hasn’t been celebrated so joyously by my daughter and I since the Wembley play-off final.

It could have been more as the two wingers, Josh McPake and Simon Power, stretched the Newport rearguard. Yet, despite all Town’s great attacking intent, another goal remained illusive, and it took a brilliant last-minute goal-line clearance from Jake Lawlor to seal the win; an intervention equally as important as Martin’s winning strike

So thrilling was it to watch, that BBC Radio York commentator Barry Parker even forgot to mention the number seven bus tootling up Wetherby Road this week.

In his post-match interview with Parker, the returning Will Smith summed it up perfectly when praising Town’s strong attacking display, by acknowledging that it made his life as a defender that much easier.

More importantly, it put nine points between Harrogate and League Two’s second-from-bottom team, Grimsby.

It was also a first win at home since October and the first Town goals at Wetherby Road since December 1, when Scunthorpe United unfortunately scored five in response. I think we can say that Town’s barren patch on their own pitch is well and truly over.

So, who would be Weaver? Although it’s undoubtedly a nice problem to have, picking a team for next week at Crawley is going to be difficult.

Does he bring back his leading marksman, or stick with the front players that excelled against Newport? Does he reunite Smith and Connor Hall as the first-choice central-defensive partnership, or has Lawlor staked his claim? Every area of the squad now has strength in depth.

Witness Francis filling in seamlessly at left-back, after having played so well in Josh Falkingham’s absence in holding midfield.

Then you’ve got other players of the calibre of Ryan Fallowfield, Lloyd Kerry, Connor Kirby and Dan Jones currently not in the team for one reason or another, and yet more new arrivals we haven’t seen much of yet, but have high hopes for.

It’s a squad that looks set to stand Town in good stead going forward, especially if the attacking verve has returned. Let’s hope so, anyway.

This very topic was raised on the Town Supporters’ website, with fans being invited to pick their best team. I chose to abstain. It was too tricky and I was genuinely torn. Picking goalkeeper James Belshaw was easy, but that’s as far as I got.

Getting off the fence and pulling the splinters out of my bum, I suppose I’d have to stick with the same team, purely because they won the week before. No other reason. Good luck with that one, Simon.