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06
Mar
Harrogate Town in 'race against time' amid mounting injuries and illness before relegation scrap
Simon Weaver said that his side was in a ‘race against time’ for his players to be fit ahead of Harrogate Town’s relegation clash against Carlisle on Saturday.
The Harrogate boss revealed that only seven first-team players trained yesterday (March 5) due to injury and illness throughout the squad.
New signings Tom Hill and Tom Cursons were both taken off injured in Town’s 0-0 draw away at Port Vale on Tuesday (March 4), which Weaver described as “hard earned but well deserved".
James Daly and Anthony O’Connor both trained separately due to recent illnesses, and Weaver will be hoping that they are both good to go for the weekend.
In a pre-match interview today, Weaver said:
We’re looking a bit depleted at the moment. We’ll have to make a late call on Tom Cursons, and Tom Hill will struggle with the hamstring strain. That won’t recover in time.
The lads are ill. There’s a fair few that aren’t training today, and there’s a couple that are training separately because they’ve been in bed predominantly this week.
It’s a race against time. Only seven trained today which is pretty depleted, but we’ll grit our teeth and put a team together.
The Town boss expressed that he was pleased with the performance a depleted Harrogate side put in against Port Vale on Tuesday, though, and that he was sure that whichever team is selected on Saturday “will be a team that expects from themselves a really good and passionate performance".
A relegation scrap
Despite earning a good point against sixth-placed Port Vale, all of the teams below Town picked up points too. Morecambe’s 1-0 win against Wimbledon sees the Wetherby Road side’s gap from the relegation zone reduced to eight points.
Weaver explained that there were a lot of big clubs below them, who would be facing the harsh reality of relegation if they don’t go all out, and so there will still be some twists and turns to come as the season nears the run-in.
Town face bottom of the table Carlisle this weekend who come to Wetherby Road in good form. A win and three draws in their last four games have seen the Cumberland side pick up some vital points and reduce their gap at the bottom of the table to two points.
The Sulphurites also come into the clash in good form, though, especially at home. Simon Weaver’s men are unbeaten in five at home and have two wins and a draw in their last four games.
The manager spoke about their home form, and how much the fans help the side. He said:
Since we’ve come up it’s been a continual challenge to get a level of consistency required at home to break through into that top half of the table.
At the minute though, we’re five games unbeaten with three wins. We’re hoping to make it four wins and six unbeaten on Saturday. We’re going all out.
The fans are showing to the lads that they’re behind them by turning up. They wouldn’t turn up if they didn’t believe that we can get good results.
It’s been growing for a number of years, and you can feel there’s a warmth to the players and to what we’re trying to achieve.
47 loyal Harrogate Town fans made the trip to Vale Park on Tuesday (March 4)
Harrogate had over 3,000 supporters against Accrington last week, and have currently sold over 3,500 for their clash against Carlisle.
The match will kick off at the Exercise Stadium at 3pm on Saturday (March 8).
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