Aaron Martin and Harrogate Town adjust quickly to life in the Football League

He walked off the pitch at Nethermoor having just netted all three goals in Guiseley’s 3-0 National League North triumph over visiting Hereford.

The 2019/20 season was just 11 games old, yet that hat-trick was his second of the campaign and took his goal tally to a staggering 14. Having scored a sackful for eighth-tier Brighouse the year before to earn himself what was, at the time, his ‘big break’, the 29-year-old has never looked back.

Fast forward 12 months to Saturday afternoon and Martin strode out at Southend United’s Roots Hall for his Football League debut with newly-promoted Harrogate Town.

Despite it being just his fifth appearance for the club, by this stage the powerhouse striker was already accustomed to the big occasion.

His first start for the Wetherby Road outfit came in a National League play-off semi-final. His second was at Wembley Stadium in the final eight days later - a 3-1 success over Notts County which secured Harrogate’s promotion to League Two.

His first four outings all demonstrated a huge amount of endeavour and varying levels of promise, but at Southend everything came together.

There were impressive performances across the park as Town romped to a 4-0 success over a Shrimpers side who were playing their football in League One last term, though Martin delivered the stand-out display on a day that now surely represents the new high-point of his career to date.

When he left the field to be replaced on 75 minutes he did so with a goal and two assists to his name, but those statistics only tell half the story.

The ex-Sheffield United and Barnsley academy player terrorised the Southend defence with an all-action display full of pace, clever movement and brute force.

He showed composure and awareness to twice tee-up Jack Muldoon to fire home, either side of finding the net himself in emphatic fashion with exactly the kind of goal he has been threatening since arriving at the EnvrioVent Stadium shortly before the UK went into coronavirus-enforced lockdown.

It would seem that Simon Weaver might have unearthed something of a gem. Harrogate were an extremely strong outfit prior to his capture, and finished last term second in the National League without any help from Martin, but his arrival has added an extra dimension to their attack.

In addition to offering work-rate, an aerial threat and physical presence, he also brings power and dynamism. The signs are also there to suggest he is capable of finding the back of the net on a regular basis despite the significant step up in class.

Safe to say, his manager is suitably impressed.

“Aaron Martin was running onto his own flicks, barging into people, he’s got an edge and thumped home a goal, I couldn’t be happier for him,” said Weaver.

“He’s in keeping with the energy we have in the group but also brings that physicality as well.

“He reminded me of Stan Collymore [on Saturday] a player who had a lot of success here at Southend.”

Having enjoyed the better of the early exchanges, Town took the lead in the Essex sunshine when Martin nodded George Thomson’s right-wing cross to Muldoon, who controlled the ball on his chest before planting a neat finish past Mark Oxley.

Lloyd Kerry doubled the advantage a minute before the interval, picking up possession on the edge of the box and rifling an effort into the top corner.

Martin added the third on the hour-mark when he expertly took Ryan Fallowfield’s up-and-under on his chest, swivelled and crashed a ferocious strike into the roof of the net.

A fourth arrived shortly afterwards, Martin again involved as he closed down Shaun Hobson following an ill-fated attempt by the hosts to play out from the back, then teed-up Muldoon to curl home his second of the afternoon.

And, that goal meant that Harrogate finished their first weekend in League Two top of the table on goal-difference. Not a bad start to life in the EFL at all.

Southend: Oxley; Bwomono, Hobson, Taylor, Ralph (Kyprianou 63); Green, Gard (Phillips 79), Hutchinson, Egbri (Kinali 74); Goodship, Kelman. Unused substitutes: Seaden, Rush, Mitchell-Nelson.

Harrogate: Cracknell; Fallowfield, Smith, Hall, Burrell; Thomson, Falkingham, Kerry, Muldoon; Martin (Walker 75), Beck (Stead 59). Unused substitutes: Minter, Jones, Kirby, Lokko.

Referee: A Coggins (Oxfordshire).

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Thank you

James Mitchinson