Why Luke Armstrong's failed Wrexham transfer will not hurt Harrogate Town's finances

A CASH injection from owner Irving Weaver will stop Harrogate Town running into problems as a result of Luke Armstrong's failed deadline-day transfer.

Harrogate agreed to sell their top-scorer of the last two seasons for a reported fourth-tier record £500,000 to Wrexham in the final hours of trading and reinvested to buy former loanee Josh March from Stevenage.

But whilst Wrexham did not file the correct paperwork in time, March's deal went through, leaving a hole in the accounts. It was quickly filled and chief executive Sarah Barry says there will be no pressure to sell when the next transfer window opens in January.

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"We're absolutely fine on the financial front," she said. "It has caused an effect because we have certain rules to follow in the EFL.

GOING NOWHERE: Harrogate Town's Luke Armstrong saw a transfer to League Two rivals Wrexham fall through. Picture: Pete Norton/Getty ImagesGOING NOWHERE: Harrogate Town's Luke Armstrong saw a transfer to League Two rivals Wrexham fall through. Picture: Pete Norton/Getty Images
GOING NOWHERE: Harrogate Town's Luke Armstrong saw a transfer to League Two rivals Wrexham fall through. Picture: Pete Norton/Getty Images

"We have to put money in to balance that but we're very fortunate we've got an amazing chairman (Weaver). The EFL are happy, everybody's happy."

Barry is not ruling out the pair forming a long-term partnership when March recovers from the knee injury he joined with.

"There's no pressure to sell (players) in January, we're not in that place at all thankfully," she said.

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"We'll probably have to assess nearer the window and it will all depend where we're at in the league and how well they work together.

PROBLEM SOLVED: Harrogate Town chief executive Sarah BarryPROBLEM SOLVED: Harrogate Town chief executive Sarah Barry
PROBLEM SOLVED: Harrogate Town chief executive Sarah Barry

"Josh hasn't played yet, but when we announced he was coming back, we got a really good reaction.

"Things sometimes turn out the may they're meant to, time will tell. Luke played really well on Saturday in spite of everything and put his heart and soul into it."

Work on a new north stand began on Monday, and is expected to be completed quickly with foundations already dug.

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"I'm hoping by the end of September we'll have at least half of it up, if not all of it," said Barry. "The facilities won't be ready but we're hoping the stand will be in use so we can increase the away capacity for the October fixtures because we've got some big ones.

"We'll have a capacity of a bit more than 5,000 (including) 2,000 seats. We were running an away capacity of 600 last season but that should get up to just short of 1,200 with potential to increase that by moving segregation gates and things like that on busy days."

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