Marked for Nathan Marshall
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
No sign of nerves from Sergio Aguilar at 20 — 8.36
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sergio Aguilar did not need any: 8.36, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market8 Nov 2032
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Harrogate Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match6 Nov 2032
Bromley left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match6 Nov 2032
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Harrogate Town and Bromley, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clae Ewing is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad8 Nov 2032
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Sergio Aguilar is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Harrogate Town will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Marcin Piszczek was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Oct 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Blackpool, and it could have been more.
Market25 Oct 2032
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Harrogate Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Oct 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings25 Oct 2032
Sergio Aguilar, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.19
A mark of 8.19 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad25 Oct 2032
At 20, Sergio Aguilar is already the best thing here
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Harrogate Town have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Max Woodford in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces25 Oct 2032
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Henry Brown gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match23 Oct 2032
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Blackpool tried to reorganise, Harrogate Town did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings11 Oct 2032
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Miles Dennison damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Daniel Wilson breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings11 Oct 2032
No sign of nerves from Sergio Aguilar at 20 — 7.70
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sergio Aguilar did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match9 Oct 2032
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match9 Oct 2032
4 matches without a goal for Harrogate Town
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clae Ewing is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Mazin Khalil was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match9 Oct 2032
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Chesterfield defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2032
Miles Dennison damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match2 Oct 2032
0‑3 against Crewe Alexandra, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The terraces4 Oct 2032
The mood at Harrogate Town has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad4 Oct 2032
Daniel Wilson breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Oct 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Harrogate Town can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Oct 2032
No end in sight to Harrogate Town's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Harrogate Town has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Oct 2032
Clae Ewing in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Oct 2032
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Harrogate Town can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad4 Oct 2032
Iljas Muminov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Aug 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Richard McIntyre: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Harrogate Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Max Woodford in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clae Ewing is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match28 Aug 2032
Three points for Harrogate Town, 2‑0 the final word against Wrexham in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings30 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings30 Aug 2032
Marked 8.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Harrogate Town.
Player ratings30 Aug 2032
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Nobody at Harrogate Town will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Aug 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad2 Aug 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Clae Ewing was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iljas Muminov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market2 Aug 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Harrogate Town, another week without a signature from Clae Ewing.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Nobody at Harrogate Town will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2032
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marcin Piszczek is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Max Woodford was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Clae Ewing falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Harrogate Town can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Yefim Stanislavchuk has improved at 28, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clae Ewing is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Mazin Khalil was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2032
The award goes to Errol Mundle-Smith, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Boardroom5 Jul 2032
Harrogate Town sign 6 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2032
Tamas Fiola hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Harrogate Town can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jun 2032
Ilja Mironov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Harrogate Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Clae Ewing falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Jun 2032
James Hughes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad28 Jun 2032
A Harrogate Town teenager takes the young player award
Sergio Aguilar is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Harrogate Town
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad26 Apr 2032
A season average of 7.45 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market26 Apr 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clae Ewing is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
Max Wilson runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
93% of the income goes out in wages at Harrogate Town
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Nobody at Harrogate Town will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
The Harrogate Town board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Market8 Mar 2032
Ilja Mironov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Harrogate Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Clae Ewing was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2032
A season average of 7.35 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings8 Mar 2032
Errol Mundle-Smith was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iljas Muminov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad8 Mar 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rhys Oakley, and the manager let it.
Match6 Mar 2032
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
Harrogate Town pull $271.0K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Feb 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Clae Ewing in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Feb 2032
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Max Wilson, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings2 Feb 2032
A performance of 8.44 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Iljas Muminov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad2 Feb 2032
A season average of 7.22 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings2 Feb 2032
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market2 Feb 2032
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Harrogate Town money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Jan 2032
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Clae Ewing in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Jan 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.50, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Iljas Muminov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad19 Jan 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jan 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings5 Jan 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Jan 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Errol Mundle-Smith and Harrogate Town agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Max Woodford was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Iljas Muminov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings5 Jan 2032
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Harrogate Town.
Squad5 Jan 2032
A place in the month's best eleven for Nathan Marshall
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Nathan Marshall has come out of that comparison in the side, and Harrogate Town have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market5 Jan 2032
The clock does Samuel Sackey’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Harrogate Town could ask drops and the wages Samuel Sackey can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Dec 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Harrogate Town can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Dec 2031
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Harrogate Town are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
An order from above at Harrogate Town: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Clae Ewing in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Iljas Muminov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings8 Dec 2031
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Dec 2031
A place in the month's best eleven for Benjamin White
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Benjamin White has come out of that comparison in the side, and Harrogate Town have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad8 Dec 2031
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Harrogate Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match6 Dec 2031
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Notts County came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Nov 2031
Errol Mundle-Smith damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market10 Nov 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Harrogate Town can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Nov 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match8 Nov 2031
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Harrogate Town are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Clae Ewing in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Nov 2031
Accrington Stanley left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Oct 2031
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Oct 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Clae Ewing in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Oct 2031
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Max Wilson, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match11 Oct 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kiyan Coke-Miles-Smith. 1‑0 against Chesterfield, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad13 Oct 2031
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Iljas Muminov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings13 Oct 2031
Marked 8.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Harrogate Town.
Market13 Oct 2031
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Kiyan Coke-Miles-Smith may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Sep 2031
Bolton Wanderers go through and Harrogate Town go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Clae Ewing was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match20 Sep 2031
3 matches without a goal for Harrogate Town
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match20 Sep 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iljas Muminov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad22 Sep 2031
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market22 Sep 2031
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Harrogate Town could get for him.
Squad22 Sep 2031
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Harrogate Town will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market15 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Harrogate Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Sep 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Matty James in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Sep 2031
46 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match13 Sep 2031
Oldham Athletic left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Iljas Muminov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market15 Sep 2031
The window shut and Jordon Ibe is still in the building
Harrogate Town spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Market15 Sep 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nathan Marshall signs something — a contract at Harrogate Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces8 Sep 2031
Anger at Harrogate Town spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market8 Sep 2031
Samuel Sackey hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Harrogate Town can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
The Harrogate Town board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Clae Ewing was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings8 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iljas Muminov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings8 Sep 2031
Marked 7.78 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Harrogate Town had the best player on the pitch.
Squad8 Sep 2031
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Aug 2031
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Harrogate Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Nathan Marshall is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Clae Ewing in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jul 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Samuel Sackey: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Harrogate Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Kacey Wooster is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jun 2031
No end in sight to Harrogate Town's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Harrogate Town has to find a result from somewhere.
Market23 Jun 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Ilja Mironov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Harrogate Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings23 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Max Woodford in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Jun 2031
Blackpool left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Jun 2031
The manager makes an example of Max Woodford
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iljas Muminov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Jun 2031
The mood at Harrogate Town has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom16 Jun 2031
Pressure builds in the Harrogate Town boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match14 Jun 2031
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings16 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Clae Ewing in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Iljas Muminov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match14 Jun 2031
It needed Kacey Wooster to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Cheltenham Town, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad16 Jun 2031
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad16 Jun 2031
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Apr 2031
Clae Ewing was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match12 Apr 2031
Bromley left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iljas Muminov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings14 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Nobody at Harrogate Town will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad14 Apr 2031
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Successful dribbles: 49. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Feb 2031
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Harrogate Town are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Clae Ewing was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match15 Feb 2031
3 matches without a goal for Harrogate Town
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iljas Muminov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.47 on the card, and the Harrogate Town support went home talking about one name.
Squad17 Feb 2031
The manager makes an example of James Hughes
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match15 Feb 2031
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Shrewsbury Town defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market17 Feb 2031
The Clae Ewing talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Harrogate Town know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.