Harrogate Town v Bradford City: Resilience the key for Simon Weaver as Sulphurites aim to get stingy on derby day

A concession of just one goal in four away matches since constitutes considerable progress in the circumstances.

The task now is to transmit that steely resolve to games at Wetherby Road, where they have shipped eight goals in their past three matches with home form being the Sulphurites’ Achilles heel in 2023-24.

Harrogate’s away statistics are the second best in the division, only Mansfield (36) have taken more points than Town’s tally of 31.

On home soil, it’s rather different. Their total of 20 points is the fourth worst record.

Weaver said: “We’ve been great away from home in taking two points and clean sheets at Barrow and Wrexham and they have given us that lift and we need to be as equally resilient against Bradford.

"We shouldn’t rip up the game plan, just because we are at home. We’ve got to show the same resilience as we have done all season away from home.

"We need to lift our game at home and we’ve been found wanting when we haven’t focused on doing it from a sound base and games have got stretched."

"We need to focus on simple aims and hopefully we can come out on top.”

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On today's derby, he added: "We’ve sold a lot of tickets and I think it could be one of our record attendances.

"We drew the first game when they had a late equaliser, but it was still a positive away point. Being at home, the emphasis is on us to go one step better."