HE JUST KEEPS ON WEAVING HIS MAGIC

AFTER 16 games, Harrogate Town boss Simon Weaver has seen his side march towards the top of the National League table – so what’s the secret of his success?

Here he tells us that character will always win over ability with Town chasing a double promotion and a ticket to the Football League

FIRSTLY, HAVE YOU RECOVERED FROM THAT LATE COMEBACK AGAINST DOVER LAST WEEK TO SNATCH A POINT?

The game cut us in ribbons really, it was a great relief to get that equaliser and it was a deserved equaliser in the end because of all the pressure in the last quarter of the game. We never lost that belief and that was so important.

And the attitude of the lads after we scored in the 95th minute was that they still sprinted back and looked to get another one. It’s good for the confidence that you can still come away with something and yet for 60 minutes we hadn’t really played well.

IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT THIS LEAGUE THAT DOVER, WHO HAVE BEEN STRUGGLING, GAVE YOU SUCH A FRIGHT

There are no easy games at this level; I know it’s a cliché but there really aren’t. You look at what you are up against, just reading opposition players’ bios and you know nothing will be easy. There are very fine lines between the sides at the top of the table and those at the bottom.

HAS THIS SEASON SURPRISED YOU AT ALL WITH HOW SUCCESSFUL YOU HAVE BEEN?

I thought (hoped) we would be competitive and thought we could do well. I felt if we could challenge for the top seven in the first 15-16 games then it would be a great start.

But the team gelled really well in pre-season; we had great togetherness which can take you a long way. But the league is an unknown quantity for all of us. I don’t think any of us thought we should definitely be up there, because you are learning as you go on.

Probably our toughest games to date have been Dover and Bromley, where we didn’t know much about them but on the day they have been really hard workouts for us and we did well to get through those games. But at no point have we got carried away. Now we are here we think we deserve to be in this spot.

THERE MUST BE A GOOD BUZZ ABOUT THE CLUB AND THE TOWN AT THE MOMENT...

There is a definite camaraderie there, and I probably only saw that a few times in my playing career. All the players really get on; they sit together at the dining table and don’t just stare at their phones, and half of them play golf on a Wednesday. It’s proper old school their approach, but they just do everything together, and we try to get the same traits of the squad into the new lads who come in. We are not a chopping and changing squad, we haven’t brought many in, and it lends itself to be a bit more consistent compared to what I have had in my career where you have a couple of bad results and there are new faces coming in. So we have stuck to the same lads who we know will give us the same levels of commitment.

SOUNDS LIKE A DREAM SCENARIO...

didn’t they wouldn’t be here. You want players who have an impact on the pitch but you also need the right personalities and we want to run the club on values more than anything.

Winning is a great feeling because you know everyone is getting involved and buying into what you want. You are never worried about whether someone will turn up. Yes players will have a dip in form, but you back the people as much as anything because they will get up off the floor and earn it in an honest way, and they want to do it for themselves, their family and the club. It’s great... it’s a nice feeling.

DO YOU THINK THE BATTLE YOU HAD IN NATIONAL NORTH LAST SEASON HAS GIVEN YOU CONFIDENCE TO CARRY ON?

National North is so tough, we just missed out on top spot and we scored 100 goals! And you think to yourself, ‘crikey we haven’t been promoted and we now have to go and play knock-out games’.

The National League have got it bang on in terms of the play-off structure so we needed to win two home games and I felt we justified that with the record we had. I do believe the set-up in the National North does make you more equipped to do well to do well at this level. It’s a privilege to manage them; they give it everything, every day, but if they