Harrogate Town AFC

Watch the Gaffer's pre match press conference ahead of Saturday's clash with Scunthorpe United...



The Gaffer on the size of our pitch…
 
It's the same for both teams. Away from home we've got a great record so perhaps we've enjoyed the bigger dimensions to be able to get our wide men on it and break at pace. I think good players can play on any type of pitch and dimensions.
 
There have been discussions to expand the pitch but we have to adhere to regulations in terms of distance from the dugout and stand. It's a tight, small ground and we know where we're at. Quite often were visiting bigger grounds and set ups and massive stadiums in comparison to ours.
 
We've just got to dig in and play within the parameters we've got. If we can extend it, we will do because it will probably play to our strengths as well. But the pitch is nothing to be ashamed of. We're not breaking any rules, we're just trying to fit the pitch into the tight parameters of the ground.
 
On the mentality of the group last time out…
 
I thought there was an unbelievable mentality and something we've got to show consistency with in every game moving forward. We'll certainly be competitive in every game if we are as intense as we were the other night. It was a brilliant collective mentality throughout the game.
 
On moving up to 13^th in the league…
 
First thing first, we don't get carried away by couple of wins. We've got to make sure we stay up this season and that's not being not ambitious, we clearly are and we want to go places and as quickly as possible.
 
However, you can suffer disappointments and hangovers if you set targets which are way beyond. If we finish mid table it would be a great story.

We're around there at the moment but there's people with games in hand and you could only be two consecutive defeats away from looking below instead of up. We take the games as they come at the moment.
 
On keeping a bigger squad happy…
 
We've just got to keep talking with the players and we've got to always remember what it was like as a player. Once you feel left out you can sometimes go into your shell. Then, it's up to us to keep talking to them, keep feeding them with information and things they can work on. Then we monitor their progress.
 
They can be here and play a big part even without being on the pitch at the moment because they put pressure on the starting XI.  We have to give them the belief that if the players who start aren't on it, others can come in at any point.
 
On playing Scunthorpe United…
 
We owe it to ourselves to put in a better display than we did at our ground. I think it was our worse score line for 10 years. We've recovered well, showed good character and since the start of this new year, we've put some decent results together so we go into it with more belief and energy than in the reverse fixture.
 
#ProudToBeTown