'There are contingencies in place' - Harrogate Town ARE ready for promotion to Football League

The Wetherby Road outfit were genuine contenders for the National League title when the 2019/20 campaign was suspended due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

There is still huge uncertainty surrounding how the season will be concluded and issues of promotion and relegation determined, though it remains a possibility that Town could end up in League Two next term.

And Weaver was quick to point out that contingency plans are in place to ensure that there would be nothing standing in the club’s way, should they be offered the opportunity to take their place in English football’s fourth tier for 2020/21 - or at any point in the future.

“You see these clumsy Tweets suggesting that we’re not able to go up, or don’t want promotion, because we don’t currently have a grass pitch,” he said.

“These can be quite damaging for people to see, even the EFL. We absolutely would not want them or anyone else to get the wrong idea regarding where we are and what we want to do.

“We are deeply ambitious. We have a plan and of course we want promotion. So much hard work has gone into getting this club to where it is – second in the National League – what would be the point in putting so much effort in, to not want to go up a level.

“I think maybe some of it comes back to the perception that we’re just little old Harrogate Town and we’re not ready. But that’s not true, there are contingencies in place.

“We often go under the radar, but that doesn’t mean we lack ambition and are not ready to take the next step.”

Work has already begun on re-developing the Family Stand at Town’s CNG Stadium, an upgrade which will see a new 880-seat structure replace the current 350-seater stand.

This will take the ground’s capacity past the 5,000-mark and mean that there will be more than 1,000 seats available to spectators, improvements that ensure Harrogate meet the criteria for entry into the Football League.

Town currently play on an artificial pitch, and would have to re-lay a grass surface if they wanted to be allowed to compete in League Two, however Weaver insists that plans are in place to take care of this as and when it becomes necessary to do so.

“Work has started already on the new stand which will ensure that we meet the criteria for capacity and the seating, and there is a contingency in place for the pitch – there has been since January 2019,” he added.

“It won’t be a problem if we have to replace the 3G with grass. It will probably be more straightforward because we’ve done the process in reverse not that long ago.

“We’ve been in touch with the contractors and we know we could complete that job pretty quickly if we needed to. I think we’re only talking a matter of weeks.

“So it’s no issue. Nor are the floodlights, or anything else. Plans are in place.

“We’ve actually heard from Rick Parry at the EFL already and they’re satisfied that all the criteria would be met in time if it came to it.”