October 2009

At the start of October, we stood in 20th place after a string of bad results. The board thought I should be performing slightly better, and the fans were getting restless after we hadn't hit the back of the net in five games. And what better way to put smiles on people's faces than a win against fellow strugglers Northwich Victoria. Unfortunately this didn't happen and we lost the game 3-0, with Guy Lopez seeing red in the second half.

Now things were getting quite desperate. With the board quickly losing patience, and the pressure increasing on both myself and the team to get results, the next game saw us entertain Alfreton Town. I stuck with the same formation I'd gone with for the past few games (4-1-3-2) but this time made our passing more direct, with a deep defensive line (partly to give the ageing Ian Cox a bit of a head start on Alfreton's pacey attackers). Miraculously, my tactics seemed to work. In the 13th minute, an Alex Smith corner was met at the back post by Simon Heslop, and the midfielder powered a header into the net for his first goal in Harrogate colours. A good start. Things got even better in the 17th minute when Lawrie Dudfield was brought down in the box, and we were given a penalty. Nic McDonnell, who at this point had gone over 500 minutes without a goal, calmly slotted the ball away, to ease the pressure off both his and my shoulders. Despite a goal in the second half, we hung on for a well-earned and somewhat overdue victory that pleased both the board and the fans.

After the win, the players' morale was good, but the next game saw us travel to Fleetwood Town, who at this point were 3rd in the league. A very, very tough match. I used the same tactics as the previous game, and made only one chance by bringing Guy Lopez back in at Anchor Man after his suspension. Things looked grim early on, with Fleetwood getting a goal in only the 4th minute. But a Lawrie Dudfield brace in the space of 15 minutes, his first goals for the club, followed by a Nic McDonnell penalty earned us a 3-1 win. Dudfield had gone over 10 hours without a goal, and expressed his 'relief and happiness' after the game at breaking his Harrogate duck.

Two wins in a row had left us in 10th place, with our next fixture away to Redditch. However, we seemed to get ahead of ourselves and three first half goals from the home side left us hoping for a miracle. It didn't come. A Nic McDonnell goal in the 77th minute was merely a consolation, and incidentally his 3rd is as many games.

Overall, October was a bit of a mixed bag. Two wins, two losses, but plenty of positives to take from it, most importantly the fact that Dudfield and McDonnell seem to have belatedly found their shooting boots. Three of our next four games bring us up against teams in the top seven of the league. Wish us luck...