THE CAZBAR BIG GAME PREVIEW – HARROGATE TOWN
Good Morning Everyone…..mixed feelings this week, and there is no doubt supporting this club is exhausting.
I’ve been a football fan long enough to understand its all about “through good times and bad”, I followed this club every game home and away through the Championship season, nobody knows more than me, pick yourself up, dust yourself down and we go again, but currently I feel as low as I’ve ever felt.
I am gutted this team once again failed to show up, that’s hard enough to take and even understand how one week we can play like league winners, and then the next week look like National League relegation candidates, and that is why I have grave concerns going into the playoffs, we all know we have that crap performance in us, so when will it rear its ugly head again as it always feel like we are just one game away from disaster.
As if it’s not bad enough supporting Jekyll & Hyde FC, what is going on off the pitch takes some fathoming. I know some cannot see the problem but in my eyes, and I am not alone, the away club being allowed to sell shirts etc at the turnstiles takes some understanding, why are we helping Mansfield promote themselves in our own stadium moments before our biggest game of the season, and not only that stewards being instructed to burst 50 or so balloons that were for the kids that are just starting to embark on their football journey, try explaining to some 5 year old the club don’t want him to enjoy themselves at a football game……I don’t care if you agree or not, it’s bullshit, and I’m afraid it’s just further evidence that this club has no idea how to act like a proper football club.
I’ve been watching live football for over 50 years, and this is a first for me, yes I’ve seen hooky street dealers selling counterfeit or cheap merch round the corner from grounds, but this has clearly been approved by our club, obviously because of the Castore links, but I’m not surprised, this club never fails to amaze, and let me tell you, it would never happen anywhere else.
I’m done with that, so moving on to a game that will probably mean more to most as a ground ticking off exercise than anything else.
All the usual facts and figures are below.
Harrogate (12th) P44, W 17, D 11, L 16, GF 55, GA 62, Pts 62.
Dons (4th) P 44, W 22, D 8, L 14, GF 74, GA 61, Pts 74.
Harrogate (H)(19th) P 22, W 9, D 3, L 10, GF 32, GA 32, Pts 30.
Dons (A)(9th) P 22, W 8, D 4, L 10, GF 30, GA 38, Pts 28.
Below is a breakdown of those Harrogate home results.
Won – Grimsby, Gillingham, Bradford, Colchester, Doncaster, Accrington, Notts Co, Salford, Morecambe.
Drawn – Sutton, Wrexham, Swindon.
Lost – Crawley, Newport, Walsall, Tranmere, Crewe, Mansfield, Stockport, AFC, Barrow, FGR.
Harrogate Last 6 Games.
Harrogate 2 Sutton 2
Harrogate 1 Grimsby 0
Notts Co 3 Harrogate 0
Harrogate 5 Gillingham 1
AFC 1 Harrogate 1
Harrogate 3 Bradford 0
There is nothing to learn from any of that, in honesty I don’t know whey I bothered, the only thing I can come up with is they are just as likely to win big, or get stuffed in equal measures, they are in reality a slightly minor version of us, they ripped Gillingham a new one recently as you can see above, but a few weeks earlier Mansfield beat them 9-2.
The top scorer for Harrogate is George Thomson with 15 goals and 7 assists and plays from centre midfield whilst Matt Daly who plays just behind the striker leads the assists with 10 so far this season.
The gaffer at Harrogate is Simon Weaver who has been in charge for almost 15 years in this his only managerial role after coming from a mainly non-league background as a defender that saw him play for 15 clubs.
His record stands at P 772, W 300, D 191, L 281, giving him a Win Ratio of nearly 39%.
We have only played Harrogate once (Sept 30th) ….and lost…and it was another dark day in MK as it extended our winless run to 5 games.
The only goal of the game was an own goal from O’Hora as a Craig Mac clearance struck him and ended up in the net. On that day we had 66% possession having 27 shots with just 4 on target, and all that in front of a crowd a fraction over 5,000.
The betting to me seems ludicrous, there is no way we should be that hotter favourites, anyway I wouldn’t touch this game with a barge pole, but for the record the odds are below and the money all week has been coming for the hosts with Harrogate being just over 3/1 on Monday.
Harrogate 23/10 Draw 11/4 MK Dons 15/13.
In other news our price is shortening to win the playoffs despite the inconsistent results, a few weeks ago we were over 2/1, that price has now dropped to just 11/8….who the hell is betting on us, it’s not me, I’ve lost enough already. Other prices include Barrow 2/1, Crewe 7/2, Crawley 8/1, Doncaster a very long 12/1 along with Walsall with the others being 25/1 and bigger.
Whilst this is to some degree a bit of a dead rubber with Harrogate having just a very distant chance of making the playoffs, the important issue for us is to maintain home status for the second leg of the playoffs. We should also factor in potentially resting players and consider if we have anyone that is a likely danger to be banned, we certainly don’t want to see the highly strung Max Dean lose his head in a meaningless game and get sent off, that will screw things right up.
It's senseless worrying about our potential playoff rivals, we have little or no control over that, it is what it is, we will just have to face who we get and that’s it.
If you asked me who I prefer in the playoffs, well two or three that I wouldn’t want to face, Barrow, Doncaster and of course AFC, and all for different reasons that I won’t go into right now, I’ll save that for when the time comes.
If you’re going to Harrogate, safe travels and I will see you up there.
WD#DonYourWhite