Harrogate Town AFC

After late heartbreak on Tuesday evening Town be looking to take the positives from Tuesday night's performance ahead of the trip over the M62 to face Stockport County.

Matty Lund's injury time header was a cruel blow but Simon Weaver felt it was his sides most positive display of the season but the visit to Edgeley Park will be another stiff test.

Our opponents
County stormed back into the EFL at the end of last season, mounting an impressive second half of the season campaign to take the National League title.

The Hatters are currently sitting level with Town on seven points after eight matches.

They have fared better at home this campaign, rebounding from the opening day defeat to Barrow at Edgeley Park by winning two and drawing one of their subsequent three games and have kept two clean sheets in the process.

County also had the upper hand in the Carabao Cup meeting in August when a Connor Jennings penalty was enough to earn a 1-0 win.

The man in charge
Dave Challinor is the man in charge at Edgeley Park, having left Hartlepool early last season after taking them into the EFL, securing promotion at the first attempt.

He will be a familiar face to Town fans having previously squared off against the club during his spell in the dugout at AFC Fylde, where he earned three promotions to take them into the National League.

After leaving the club in October 2019, he was appointed manager of Hartlepool a month later and guided them back into the EFL via the playoffs that season.

Challinor was also a former County player, spending two seasons there after starting his career at Tranmere. He later moved on to Bury where he finished his league career after almost 400 appearances.

Ones to watch
Paddy Madden is available again after serving a suspension and there is plenty of attacking talent available to Challinor, with the likes of Ollie Crankshaw and Kyle Wootton also at his disposal, with both finding the net in the early weeks.

Former Bolton man Antoni Sarcevic has proven a key part of the midfield since his arrival hitting three goals, with another summer addition, Callum Camps, logging plenty of minutes.

At the back, the club bolstered their defence by adding former Northampton-man Fraser Horsfeld as well as Joe Lewis and Chris Hussey who arrived from Torquay and Port Vale.

History
Whilst the club were first formed back in 1883, they have been known as Stockport County since 1890 and joined the Football League ten years later.

In the post-war period the club would spend life in the bottom two divisions, earning a number of promotions but being unable to remain in the third tier for any sustained period.

The turning point in their fortunes came with appointment of Danny Bergara in 1989, with the Uruguayan earning a first promotion in the 1990/91 season as well as leading the Hatters to multiple Wembley trips.
The 1990's would undoubtedly become the club's most successful period, featuring in the old first division for five seasons as well as the League Cup semi-finals in 1996/97.

Dave Jones took over in 1995 and took the club into the second tier following promotion in 1996/97, before departing for Southampton and being replaced by Gary Megson – who led the side to a best-ever eighth placed finish in his first season.

The club fell back through the divisions in the early 2000's though, before dropping out of the Football League altogether in 2010/11, and a further relegation to National League North was experienced in 2012/13.
2018/19 saw the club return to the fifth tier before last season's title win capped a return back to the EFL.

Team news

Simon Weaver remains without Will Smith and Max Wright. However, Josh Falkingham and George Thomson are ahead of schedule in their routes to recovery. George Horbury serves the second match of his three-game suspension.