We may be top of the table but staying up is still the aim
OCTOBER 19, 2013. Harrogate Town trailed 3-0 at halftime to Boston United and the vultures were beginning to circle.
After an indifferent start to the season with progress on the pitch slow, manager Simon Weaver, to some “unsackable” due to his father, Irving, being chairman, needed a miracle.
“Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to discover how much grit you’ve got,” he tells The NLP. “We drew 3-3 in the end. The only way, really, is to look at yourself and the people around you and think, ‘Ok, what do we want to do? Do we want to go back there and struggle like that or have you got enough to go out there fighting?’ That was a big day for me.”
He has had some big days since. Before yesterday’s visit from Leyton Orient, the only other unbeaten team along with themselves, Harrogate sat top of the National League in their first season in the top flight.
It has been a long and bumpy road to the summit for the Yorkshire side, who were reprieved from relegation in Weaver’s first year due to Northwich Victoria’s liquidation and then staved off the threat of administration in 2011 as Irving took over the club.
Even then success hasn’t come overnight with crowds in the early days of the Weaver revolution barely creeping over 200.
Harrogate are already halfway to the 50-point mark considered enough to secure another season in the National League, and that still remains the target.
“Before the season, the directive was to stay up,” says the 40-year-old former Lincoln City defender. “That’s not being unambitious, it’s about getting to that point where we can then really enjoy it. Hopefully we’ll get to that stage and achieve that status for a second year. Everyone will be overjoyed at that.
Values
“We know there can be a loss of form, there can be injuries, which we’ve had before that probably stopped our progress in the league below.
“Sometimes people set themselves up for a big fall by speaking out of turn and people enjoy that when it happens.
“There was a headline written on a website over the last couple of days hinting about our ambition. I suppose everyone’s ambitious but I don’t think anyone can accuse me of getting carried away or saying that we’ve cracked it because it’s not our nature to do that.”
Stepping up into the National League it might have been easy for Weaver to abandon the values and people who had got them there.
But turning fulltime last season gave him the opportunity to build towards Step 1 by offering players two-year contracts.
“I needed to convince them that they’re not just a full-time player for a year, we’re backing you to do well,” explains Weaver. “For the amount of goals we scored and playing exciting football, I thought they’d proved themselves at that level and were worthy of a try at the next.
“I didn’t want them looking over their shoulders and thinking ‘oh are they just going to rip it up now and used us’.
“Sometimes I think you can be too ruthless and then it’s not a proper team, teamwork can be underestimated. I don’t think we do. Growing partnerships and relationships on the pitch have really enhanced our chances.
“It’s been a positive start from us, no one’s getting carried away at all I don’t think it’s in anyone’s nature to do that because we’ve tried to recruit lads of the same ilk as the main core who got us up. “So far so good. It’s good we picking up points early on.” Only four new signings we made this summer, one bei experienced Lincoln City cent back Callum Howe. “I’m from Doncaster whi isn’t far from here,” Howe ad “It’s ideal for me. It’s a nice ar and a great club. “I met with him [Weav in the summer and knew wanted to go there straig away. He said to me abo getting the games I ne and he’s done everythi that he promised me so I got no complaints.” Weaver’s preparation meticulous and th summer was no differe Every player underwe important heart scans a local hospital and we part of a gruelling fitn camp at Ripley Castle. “It was absolute hell earth!” says Weaver. “W probably took them to t brink a few times. It was
really, really hard but they’re young enough and capable enough and there was no moaning, at least not until they probably went back in their cars.
“When your oldest player, Kelvin Langmead, is the first one there with his porridge and his foam roller being ultra-professional, it spreads that professionalism and they know what they’ve got to do to keep up standards.”
Hardened
“We were doing double sessions pretty much every day,” adds Howe. “They had us working hard. Looking at the lads in preseason I knew we were going to be strong.”
There is much more to Harrogate’s time in the National League than just what happens on the pitch.
Now they are alongside many ex-Football league clubs and established Non-League sides which they can be learning from.
“Everywhere we’ve visited, all the teams that have come to us, everything is a step up in terms of the professionalism,” Weaver adds. “We went to Maidstone and looked at their stands and it’s brilliant. I went to a Chesterfield reserve game the other day and saw an unbelievable stadium – and parking facilities! That’s a big step up.
“We went to Bromley who had a kids section indoors next to the pitch. I wandered in there and had a look and got a card on what they do. We’ve got to take the opportunity to learn from each setup.”
While it is too early to be considering promotion, Harrogate became the fourth club in the National League playing home games on a 3G pitch – a surface currently banned in the Football League and would require ripping up.
Their artificial pitch has become a sporting hub within the community, allowing the club to create a player development centre which has over 200 boys and girls and junior teams from the age of three.
“The 3G has been a massive part of that and links with the community. It would wound us having to rip it up in that respect but is a bridge we don’t yet have to cross. I believe our 3G is a good passing surface which everything about coaching and at grassroots level is trying to encourage. “It’s a pity that it can be played on at higher levels in the Champions League and in Europe but at the minute it’s deemed not fit for purpose at League Two. We’ll see. It might change over the forthcoming seasons, I hope so.” For now though, the focus is on where the next points are coming from and avoiding the next bloodied nose. “Perhaps the more problems you have the more problem solving you do and soul searching,” adds Weaver. “It can only be good if you keep getting back up and learning. It probably hardened us in some ways. “I enjoy being in the ring and having a battle and because of those difficult times, at a pretty young age for a manager, it’s made me not take anything for granted.”