ITS ALL COME TRUE!
How good are the English Football Play Offs? Certainly they are very good for the clubs that win through to the next level of the Football League. Especially on Yorkshire Day weekend and especially as Harrogate Town have made the step up.
Harrogate Town, after 106 years, went from relative non-league "mediocrity" into the "promised land" today, as they beat the oldest Football League club, Notts County in the National League Premier Play Off. They won 3-1, easily! It could have been 8.
I know I was listening to the commentary through my minio raido, as my better half and I strode along the Cleveland Way between Rievaulx Abbey and Helmsley, the delightful market town in Ryedale.
Goals came in the 5th, 28th to make it 2-0 at half time. They let one in at 46 minutes to add interest but secured their victory on the 70th minute.
Founded in the Spa Town of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in 1914, the club known as the Sulphurites (you will have to guess why) has today, had a major boost.
Despite the club being disbanded in 1932 due to lack of interest! they reformed as Harrogate Hotspurs in 1935 and became Harrogate Town FC in 1945 after the war.
They played in the West Riding League, West Yorkshire League, the Yorkshire League, the Midlands League and by 1982 were members of the North-East Counties FL.
With floodlights in place they celebrated this with a game against Eddie Gray's Leeds United and soon became members of the Northern Premier League in 1987.
With an FA Cup success in 2001-2, after a good cup run, they eventually lost to Farnborough Town 1-5, but the Sulphurites were clearly "making waves" in the north.
Irving Weaver took charge of the club's finances, while his son Simon eventually took over the reigns on the pitch. Times changed. He has managed the club since 2009, the longest period of management in English professional football.
By 2016-17, the club became "full time"(unsurprisingly, there was a major turn round in playing staff), they had an astro pitch installed and in May 2018 they won the National League North Play Offs, joining the National League, one step behind the Football League.
This season, due to Covid-19, they have had to rely on "average points" to put them into the play offs for the Football League and having beaten Boreham Wood in the semi-final they have now taken the "big plunge".
So there is much to look forward to in Harrogate, as well as a big soak!
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