Harrogate Town AFC

Here's the Gaffer's pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday evening's contest with Oldham Athletic…
 


The Gaffer on the achievement of cementing our place in the Football League for next season…

It's been a good weekend so being in the Football League for another season is beginning to sink in. It's what we've been striving for. Before the season started, I got a call from Howard Wilkinson at the LMA, he was the first boss at Sheffield Wednesday when I supported them.

It was brilliant, he invited me to his house and he told me it was going to be a ‘baptism of fire', and it has been. He said the objective had to be to stay up.

I think any team that wants to go up at any level, you don't want to just be saying ‘we're aspiring for more', which we are by the way. Especially this year without fans, it's been about staying up.

On getting our first win in seven on Saturday…

The spell without a win had been dragging a bit.  I felt in all those games we've been competing well and been right in the hunt for maximum points but we haven't achieved what we wanted.

There's been recurring errors and it's been really frustrating because we can see we look like a good team, against Bolton and the other night especially, we were driving forward really well, were intense in the battle and coming out on top in a lot of areas.

We needed the three points and to do the double over Bradford City is very much an achievement for our group.

On whether he was surprised when Harry Kewell was sacked last month…

Yes, because he hadn't been there very long. It's hard for any person in the job to settle down and assert themselves on the whole football club in just a few short months. It's unfortunate for Harry but we know Oldham have had a bunch of managers and now it's Keith Curle's turn.

On the statistic that Oldham have averaged six goals in each of their last three games…

The stats do present the case that we might get a few chances but equally we've got to really focus defensively as they are strong in front of goal, get goals from all areas and attack the ball well.

It's something again we review, like the game the other day. We have to keep winning the ball at both ends of the pitch, keep covering each other and make sure we're in sync with each other and communicating with each other

On the next few games being an opportunity for players to stake their claim for a spot at Wembley…

Yeah it is for Wembley and for after Wembley, looking to next season. We want to finish with a spell of attacking football but be a bit more street wise as well in our game and give us real scope for optimism for next season to sell season tickets.

It's really important for a club like ours that we maximise the opportunities and Wembley is an unbelievable opportunity coming up that everybody wants to play in.

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