Harrogate Town refuse to dwell on biggest win of season as in-form Oldham Athletic loom
SIMON WEAVER says his Harrogate Town players rightly enjoyed their midweek win at Tranmere Rovers - but they must quickly move on in order to achieve their aim of avoiding the drop in League Two.
Harrogate produced their biggest win of the season when beating hosts’ Tranmere Rovers on Tuesday, goals from Chanse Headman (2) and Reece Smith securing a 3-0 victory.
It was enough to lift the Sulphurites above relegation rivals Barrow and off the bottom of the League Two table.
With eight games remaining, Harrogate are now just one point from safety, while they also dragged struggling Tranmere - managed by former FC Halifax Town boss Pete Wild - into the relegation mix, with just six points now between the two.
Next up on Saturday are an Oldham Athletic team unbeaten in eight games and fancying their chances of gatecrashing the League Two play-offs - now sitting just four points off Grimsby Town who currently occupy the last play-off spot.
But given Harrogate have lost only two of their last seven and the fact that has come on the back of an awful 12-game winless streak, confidence is clearly returning to Weaver’s line-up.
“We wanted the lads to enjoy that wave of positive emotion after a game and also enjoy a day off on Wednesday - but then also properly reset,” said Weaver (inset).
“There won’t be a video review, there wasn’t one on Monday - we might show a few clips on what worked well in certain areas in preparation for our next game - but we didn’t overdo it with the reviews this week - it is very much about moving forward into the next game with the same intensity.”
One thing Weaver was delighted to see was more of a cutting edge in front of goal, something they have lacked for the majority of the season.
“I think what impressed me most on Tuesday was just the energy of the group,” added the Harrogate boss. “The positive energy in the changing room before - even at half-time when we were 3-0 up, their intentions were right.
“It’s when the lads have already said it before I need to say anything. They were good and we were putting chances away and were a bit more cut-throat
“But then they were also after the clean sheet, so to achieve that as well was great and I thought the big thing was that the group managed themselves.”