POSHBURGERSON MENU,BUTIT’SORIENT TREAT WHOSERVEUPA
HARRoGATE Town manager Simon Weaver says: ‘They call us “the posh boys”, but let them think that, we’re really quite tough.’
The food van nearby has a menu that provides some context behind the unwanted nickname — Burger Wellington with red wine gravy is the signature dish.
It is, however, well worth the £5 for those who indulge their tastebuds on a crisp afternoon in this well-heeled parish of North Yorkshire, home to England boss Gareth Southgate.
By half-time the beef Wellington has sold out and a very un-Harrogate-like scuffle breaks out in one of the bars. Perhaps the lamb cutlets were overcooked?
Weaver, though, is right. Their goalkeeper may have a bottle of the upmarket Harrogate Spring Water in his net, but this team have fought their way to the top of the National League.
Come full-time on Saturday, they had slipped into second place behind an impressive Leyton orient after a first defeat of the campaign. Just to be here competing for a place in the Football League is a remarkable achievement for a club in their first season at this level, just one year after turning professional.
The owner is Irving Weaver, the manager’s dad. The housing businessman took over seven years ago from Bill Fotherby, the ex-Leeds United chairman, when his son was already in the dugout.
on the pitch — a state-of-theart 4G surface — it took them six years to win promotion from the sixth tier. off it, however, the club have been on the up from the moment Weaver Sr arrived.
The crowds in 2011 1 were a few hundred at t best. There were 2,584 there for this game. The locals are leaving the e tourists to populate e Harrogate’s tea rooms ms and spas on a Saturday ay afternoon.
Most of them cram into to the new stand behind the he goal where, as Weaver Jr puts it, ‘a wasteland full ull of flat footballs’ used to be. ‘We had to get people ple wanting to watch us. once you do that, you can an fine-tune your income,’ e,’ says Weaver Sr.
‘I never knew if the town wn would respond because use there are other attractions ons here — the spas, the Dales, les, there’s a rugby club.
‘But at junior level football is huge and we’re tapping into that. We have 250 children here during the week getting topclass coaching. The kids then get their parents to bring them to the game and all of a sudden the club and the town are energised, pulling forward together as one. I want to leave something sustainable.’
There is nothing nothi posh about captain Josh Falkingham, FaTHE the former Leeds youth-team midfielder who is very much in the mould of Harrogate’s honorary vice-president David Batty.
The 28-year-old is also involved in the club’s youth development. ‘The bandwagon is well and truly rolling here,’ Falkingham says. ‘The manager has brought a team together and we know exactly what we’re about and the town has bought into that.
‘When I was growing up in Leeds, I knew Harrogate had a team, but the club is unrecognisable today. Young players coming out of professional clubs, such as Leeds, look at us as an option.’
Weaver Sr, though, has one worry, albeit a welcome one. ‘Suddenly, we’re looking at what we have to do to satisfy the Football League if we go up,’ he says.
‘The pitch would have to come up for a start. There’s a lot to think about. If we lose three matches I might be able to relax!’
Well, they have finally lost one. Former Premier League midfielder Jobi McAnuff was the difference, providing two classy finishes after Macauley Bonne curled the opener.
orient have their own promotion ambitions after their 112-year stay in the Football League ended last year.
McAnuff, in his second spell at the club, says: ‘Sometimes in football you end up in places you might not think you would. But I had unfinished business here and this is about getting the club back to where it should be.’
For Harrogate and the Weaver family, it is about getting their club where it really has no right to be. Do that and they’ll have to up their supply of the beef Wellington.