Is this a golden time to support Harrogate Town- Discuss

With everything going on at Town and a few more wins under our belt we may well be living through the best of times with Town. New areas of the ground, thriving off field activities and winning women's and junior teams, the first team have started to put a run together. Match day programme is great, the pre and post match stuff is a class apart from last season and we've finally got stuff to buy. Away travel is a full coach to every game and numbers are up, plus Army game and junior galas. Start taking 3 points at the away games and the season may turn out just turn out alright!

Can't really argue with most of that. I still think the main team has under performed overall this season, but I am feeling fairly upbeat at the moment. Looking forward to full time football next season. Anyway, better than being a Railway fan, that's for sure!

Unpredictable scores abound in this league week after week.
Tonight
Boston 3-1. Chorley.

I agree that the club is thriving and significant improvements have been made. Its a great time to be a Town fan. All we need is the mens team to be more consistent and to sneak into the play offs! However, even if that doesn't happen, there's plenty to look forward to for next season and in the future. There are one or two things I would change from the current set up but the overall picture is definitely positive.

As a ladies footballer myself, the set up at Town together with the support from the club itself will be the envy of a lot of ladies teams who don't have the same opportunities and level of support.

KatSwinn wrote:I agree that the club is thriving and significant improvements have been made. Its a great time to be a Town fan. All we need is the mens team to be more consistent and to sneak into the play offs! However, even if that doesn't happen, there's plenty to look forward to for next season and in the future. There are one or two things I would change from the current set up but the overall picture is definitely positive.

As a ladies footballer myself, the set up at Town together with the support from the club itself will be the envy of a lot of ladies teams who don't have the same opportunities and level of support.

I know yjou have played down the road for many years Kat, but are you tempted to make the switch next year.
Cheeky question, I know, but had to ask it. Will understand if you " no comment" though.

We're not far off. We haven't made as much progress on the pitch as any of us would've liked but this season was never going to be a walk. Just want to see a full strength team going out week in week out and see what we are capable of!

Townfan wrote:

KatSwinn wrote:I agree that the club is thriving and significant improvements have been made. Its a great time to be a Town fan. All we need is the mens team to be more consistent and to sneak into the play offs! However, even if that doesn't happen, there's plenty to look forward to for next season and in the future. There are one or two things I would change from the current set up but the overall picture is definitely positive.

As a ladies footballer myself, the set up at Town together with the support from the club itself will be the envy of a lot of ladies teams who don't have the same opportunities and level of support.

I know yjou have played down the road for many years Kat, but are you tempted to make the switch next year.
Cheeky question, I know, but had to ask it.  Will understand if you " no comment" though.

Not at my age Surplus. If I'd been much younger then I may have been tempted but I've always said I was born at the wrong time so far as ladies football was concerned. I've been playing for 20 years and wish I'd had the opportunities that the girls now have. I also have a lot of loyalty (although hard to know why sometimes!) and its a good bunch of girls.

I still think the match day experience needs to be improved. The biggest gripe I have is Saxon Security.

Earlier this season, about 10 of us used to get to the ground at about 1:30 and have a number of drinks in the 1919. Now you're lucky if 5 of us get there before 14:55. The 1919 is like a bunker which jumped up security guards dishing out orders.

Several don't even bother with home games and only travel away as the experience of going to a home games is so bad.

I really hope the club are aware of how fans feel. The club is certainly getting a bad name amongst non league fans. We used to be voted one of the best away trips in the league. Now we're one of the worst.

We will always need to improve, both on and off the pitch. Other teams haven't stood still and neither can we. How we utilise stewards at the CNG is going to be an ongoing issue and is one the SG is involved in and hopefully we can all be part of that conversation through the end of this season and into next. With big games and crowds we need stewards and security on occasions as well as segregation. It would be good to get the views of away supporters to see where issues lie.

Need to look after your home fans first!
Out of the segregated matches played at the CNG this season it’s been the home fans who have missed the start of the games because of long queues caused by a lack of turnstiles to get in!!!!!
Away fans have ended up with more turnstiles!

Town fans have even missed the start of unsegregated games because of the lack of manned turnstiles open!

It’s not rocket science, more fans mean you need more turnstiles & more turnstiles open!

Off the pitch excluding matchdays come on leaps and bounds, on the pitch we've gone backwards imo

I think we have a better squad than last season.
Kidderminster, Halifax, Darlington & Salford have all come in and raised the standard somewhat.
Fylde, Chorley & Tamworth are still with us.
Losing a series of players to injury just at the time we played all this lot did for us, otherwise we would be still up there.
One of those things.

Thankfully ainge has come up with goods infront of goal or we would be absolutely stuffed! JPP is another knowles, great player when fit but that's rarely the case hence why there contracted to conf north clubs, if signing leesley was in the pipeline why release Clayton? He's of scored 20+ for us this year with the amount of decent balls into the area.
A blind man on a galloping horse could tell the league was going to be strong this year, I don't think the squad has improved from last year,
I just look at it as this time last year we had real aspirations of winning the league, this year we all live in hope we might sneak into the playoffs, to me that's a backwards move.

Surely we should have addressed the striker situation earlier. Tough on Robertson, of course, but the club should have tried to fill the gap earlier. Likewise Knowles, tough for him as well, but effectively we had 4 strikers, 2,out for the season, one (Chib) that the manager clearly didn't trust, left us with one (ONE) maim striker! Last season Daniels freak season saved our bacon, Ainge is doing something similar this season, but its seat of the pants stuff. We need to get this sorted for next season

I am delighted (and grateful!) for Ainge, of course, but I'm sorry we should not be relying on a converted centre half to score our goals, it's absurd. Remember, Daniels was signed as a midfielder, not a striker. Our. failures in this department go back a long way. Needs to change guys.

I'll just mention James Walshaw as one painful example. Mind you, banging the goals in for Farsley!

Odds on when weaver finally gives up on knowles he'all join for someone in our league and bang in 25+

Thought id check in on here as seems to have interesting the last week with stuff like this.....

No it isn't.

I think there is a mis connect between johnny come latelies (even myself with a paultry 6 years Town watching and a big gap to a few years in the late 90s) and people who have always been Town.

A lot of the johnny come latelys seem to equate Town with a race up the leagues and being national League and above.

It means you lot naively look beyond the fact the club is not a proper football club because of the obvious reason that owner is here to progress his son's career. We see on the pitch year after familiar year the impact and we see off the pitch the never ending dance of the feckless and hangers on doing what the **** takes their fancy to further their own personal agenda.

The club is literally a vehicle for people who have not been at the club for long or had very little longer term experience as fan or player to do their own thing.

If that coincides with fans benefitting then great but more often than not we see mistakes ranging from the extremely naive (in footballing terms), to luaghable but with many showing a frankly disrespectful and arrogant attitudes shown towards many good people. Attitudes shown by Mr Communications don't come from nowhere they are borne from the issue of the unique ownership and the reasons behind them.

So you fall into two buckets - either you are placated by the musings by the club and fall for it year after year, choose to ignore the way the club treats people and look to the thing the club has started doing (which are certain improvements) but are no different from what a lot of other clubs manage without the benefactor for son investment.

Or you go to non league football because it excludes a lot of the rules and hurding of its fans and enjoy a club to be a local, friendly and inclusive. A club that knows its level and is inclusivity by culture not by design of individuals furthering themselves for their own gain.

So no in my own outlook i would echo the sentiment of another longer term fan and good bloke who would rather Town became normal club, a club for its own sake than the laughable charade that Town has become.

It was FC Nepotism but i think FC Emperors New Robes would be a better collective description for the individuals who make town about them than about the club.

I kind of agree, but I've been a fan for, God, 20 years or so, I can't really change, don't want to. But I don't like the current set up, but there is nowt I can do about it. I do believe that this season has revealed Simon's limitations, after some real progress last season (thanks to Daniels!). Every season is like groundhog day, why should it change? I just wish Irving would get a grip and answer the key question. Why are you doing this? To keep your son employed or develop Harrogate Town. After 7 years it is obvious you cannot do both. Sadly we all know the answer.