It is early afternoon on Thursday 12 September and Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver is relaxing at home. An evening midweek kick-off gave him a chance to spend time with his children before school before playing a rare round of golf.
His playing partner was his father, Irving, who is also Harrogate Town’s chairman. They faced the crack pairing of assistant manager and goalkeeping coach, Paul Thirlwell and Phil Priestley.
Harrogate Town are arguably the smallest club in England’s top four divisions. Their Wetherby Road ground certainly has the lowest capacity.
Until 2018, they had never played above the sixth tier. In 2020, promotion to the EFL was followed by assumption that they wouldn’t hang around. Harrogate have not finished in the bottom five. Last season they were 13th.
Still, some league fixtures are more daunting than others. Doncaster Rovers are in town tonight. They are top of the table, have the division’s top scorer and its Player of the Month in Luke Molyneux. Billy Sharp will start up front for Grant McCann’s team.
This will also be the first time that Sky Sports have broadcast a match live from Wetherby Road. They are sure that it will not be the last.
The life of a professional football manager is one of near-constant obsession and Weaver is the longest-serving in the Football League by more than seven years. Harrogate lost their previous match in the final minute at Cheltenham Town.
As we sit in Weaver’s kitchen, he discusses the issues that persuaded him to change formation to 4-2-3-1. His 5-4-1 with wing-backs had been sound defensively but there had been problems with springing counter attacks.
He decided upon 4-4-2 for this evening, he tells me, when cooking Sunday dinner for the children on Sunday while his wife was away doing the Great North Run.
After watching videos of his own side and Doncaster, he believes that a concerted – but intelligent – dual press from the forwards can force rushed direct passes and turnovers. The team has worked on that shape for the previous three days.
Then we move onto free-kick defending, the situation from which Harrogate conceded their goal at Cheltenham. Because it was added time, Weaver says, his players had lost a little focus and defended areas rather than spotting the overload at the back post.
He talks about how you have to approach each player differently when discussing mistakes. I could sit there all day and listen, quite frankly.
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It is early afternoon on Thursday 12 September and Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver is relaxing at home. An evening midweek kick-off gave him a chance to spend time with his children before school before playing a rare round of golf.
His playing partner was his father, Irving, who is also Harrogate Town’s chairman. They faced the crack pairing of assistant manager and goalkeeping coach, Paul Thirlwell and Phil Priestley.
Harrogate Town are arguably the smallest club in England’s top four divisions. Their Wetherby Road ground certainly has the lowest capacity.
Until 2018, they had never played above the sixth tier. In 2020, promotion to the EFL was followed by assumption that they wouldn’t hang around. Harrogate have not finished in the bottom five. Last season they were 13th.
Still, some league fixtures are more daunting than others. Doncaster Rovers are in town tonight. They are top of the table, have the division’s top scorer and its Player of the Month in Luke Molyneux. Billy Sharp will start up front for Grant McCann’s team.
This will also be the first time that Sky Sports have broadcast a match live from Wetherby Road. They are sure that it will not be the last.
The life of a professional football manager is one of near-constant obsession and Weaver is the longest-serving in the Football League by more than seven years. Harrogate lost their previous match in the final minute at Cheltenham Town.
As we sit in Weaver’s kitchen, he discusses the issues that persuaded him to change formation to 4-2-3-1. His 5-4-1 with wing-backs had been sound defensively but there had been problems with springing counter attacks.
He decided upon 4-4-2 for this evening, he tells me, when cooking Sunday dinner for the children on Sunday while his wife was away doing the Great North Run.
After watching videos of his own side and Doncaster, he believes that a concerted – but intelligent – dual press from the forwards can force rushed direct passes and turnovers. The team has worked on that shape for the previous three days.
Then we move onto free-kick defending, the situation from which Harrogate conceded their goal at Cheltenham. Because it was added time, Weaver says, his players had lost a little focus and defended areas rather than spotting the overload at the back post.
He talks about how you have to approach each player differently when discussing mistakes. I could sit there all day and listen, quite frankly.
Read more here: [https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/my-day-harrogate-town-assistant-manager-doing-the-92-3283081](https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/my-day-harrogate-town-assistant-manager-doing-the-92-3283081)
Knew they’d done well but I’d totally missed them getting up to the championship.
Fair fucks to them
The actual i newspaper hanging out in our little meme sub!
Completely the wrong sub, but this journalist is decent to be fair. He’s trying to do the 92 in one season which is a fun challenge.
That is an awesome read!
Website has way too many pop ups, thought I’d stumbled on a reach group article by mistake.