Frozen out but Harrogate Town set sights on swift return

Frustrated though they were by yet another postponement, Harrogate Town’s players did at least receive one bit of good news in the wake of this weekend’s League Two clash with Exeter City being called off.
Harrogate's George Thomson. Picture Tony JohnsonHarrogate's George Thomson. Picture Tony Johnson
Harrogate's George Thomson. Picture Tony Johnson

A significant covering of snow on their Wetherby Road pitch forced the Sulphurites to postpone a fourth consecutive home fixture on Friday lunchtime, though they needed just a few hours to successfully rearrange that game for Tuesday evening.

This means that Simon Weaver’s men don’t need to shift focus, and can pick up where they left off with their preparations for tackling the Grecians when they return to group training.

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“I suppose that’s the one positive if we’re playing Exeter again on Tuesday, we are gearing up to take on the same opposition,” midfielder George Thomson said.

“We’ve already done some work on them, so at least we don’t have to start all over again preparing to play a different 
side.

“The plan is to train Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting. The gaffer [Weaver] and Thirs [Paul Thirlwell] want us back on the training pitch as soon as possible so they can get some more work into us.

“Because the Carlisle game got called of on Tuesday, that essentially became a day off and then we’ve hardly been able to do anything because the pitches have been frozen with the weather.

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“It’s not ideal. It’s just been us and our running shoes. We’ve all had to do a few little 5ks on our own the last few days. It’ll be nice just to be able to kick a football again.”

The decision to call off this afternoon’s match was made at the earliest possible opportunity to save Exeter a long, wasted journey.

But this postponement is already the fourth that Town have been forced into since Christmas, and none of them have been due to Covid-19 issues.

Tuesday’s scheduled League Two game at home to Carlisle United was called off as a result of a power outage in the local area.

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That contest had originally been due to take place on December 29, but was abandoned after just 10 minutes because referee Martin Coy deemed the pitch to have become unsafe.

The Sulphurites’ home game against Cheltenham Town on January 2 was also postponed due to a frozen pitch.

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