Harrogate Town AFC

Watch the Gaffer's pre Barrow interview here…
 

 
The Gaffer on the mood in the camp…

Everyone's upbeat and they've come around now because it was an eventful night and a great win for the club (against Bradford).

On the 704 fans who made the trip to Valley Parade…

It would have been unimaginable, really (5-10 years ago). We've needed to get to this point and there's been times where I've questioned whether it would really grow and catch fire but it proved it the other night that it certainly is growing, and the volume of the fans in terms of their vocal support, it was just inspirational for the players. It's been happening for a few weeks at home and to go away from home like that, it just really gives belief for the future.

On whether we controlled spells of the game better against Bradford…

I think we don't go over the top now and just go, well we've cracked it. But certainly it was a step up into in terms of the performance. We know that we're a work in progress and in our second year in the Football League, it's about establishing ourselves and really establishing our plan for moving forward into future years, so we've got to commit to a style and way of playing.

We've certainly been entertaining at times, scoring nine goals in the last three away games and we shouldn't be ashamed of the odd bloody nose along the way because we're all learning together. I think the important thing for me is players commit to a style of play.

On a defensive resilience shown against Bradford…

I said tongue and cheek actually that it was good to see a bit of claret coming from a centre half and I thought Will (Smith) was magnificent on that on the night, he headed everything, blocked everything and put in a really good commanding performance, as did Warren and Shez (Sheron) next to him.

On what to expect from Barrow…

They're a good team. Mark Cooper at Forest Green really paved the way for them at that club in terms of their plan of attack and style of play. He's taking it on at Barrow now and they're a slippery team to play against because they do commit to passing it and they've got some gifted players. We have to make sure that we've got the right mindset and we can't have an after Lord Mayor's show. This is about producing the goods.

On continuing to be confident going into the weekend…

We've got to show the confidence to commit to it. Whether it's the defenders receiving the ball or the midfielder's distributing it wisely and keeping the ball under pressure and open space up elsewhere. But we also need that resilience to defend and head and block and do the gritty stuff which can't be underestimated.

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