Stevenage v Harrogate Town: Simon Weaver looking for Sulphurites to be adaptable

Simon Weaver says that being both willing and able to adapt is key to his Harrogate Town side’s chances of being able to evolve as a Football League club.
Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver.Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver.
Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver.

The Sulphurites have spent all but the last 18 months of their 107-year-history in non-league, but haven’t looked out of place since sealing promotion to the fourth tier last summer.

They began 2021/22 superbly and were in and around the automatic promotion places during the early stages of the campaign before embarking on a slide down the table as autumn turned to winter.

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A 4-0 mauling by Newport County earlier this month left Harrogate winless in five League Two matches and prompted Weaver to switch to a new-look 3-4-3 formation, one which his players appear to have taken to rather well.

They kept a rare clean-sheet as they eased to a 3-0 success over basement boys Oldham Athletic last Saturday and looked solid for almost the entirety of their EFL Trophy quarter-final showdown at Sutton United in midweek, only to be stung by a late sucker punch.

Thus, the acid test will come at a resurgent Stevenage this afternoon, with Weaver stressing that change was necessary.

“I think it has been proven over the last couple of games that the squad is good enough to adapt,” he said.

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“It was needed. Just because we’ve come far in the last few years it doesn’t mean to say that we can go again by just doing the same things.

“We have to be flexible and adaptable and we’ve done that in the last couple of games. We have tried something different and we know now that we’ve got the quality to be able to look at opponents and change it accordingly. It’s great knowing that ability to vary our tactics.”

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