Harrogate Town opinion: Sulphurites brought back down to earth by Walsall FC defeat

If Town’s steady rise to the lower reaches of the play-off places had some of us daring to dream, then Saturday’s disappointing performance at home to Walsall brought us back down to earth with a resounding thud.

I’d been musing on the walk to the ground about how nice it was to attend a match whilst not having to look over my shoulder towards the bottom of the table, and how the players would be able to play with a newfound freedom unaffected by it being a ‘must-win’ game. Yes, I was quite looking forward to this one.

I should have known better.

What we got was a first half that never lifted itself above the level of a dull pre-season friendly, with the players seemingly in end-of-season mode. It felt like both teams had taken the lack of pressure quite literally.

Town had the majority of possession against a visiting team happy to sit off and they didn’t really know what to do with it. The performance seemed laboured, and on the few occasions when the players did move the ball quickly into shooting positions, chances were spurned in favour of yet another pass.

It’s true that a truly atrocious offside decision robbed Matty Daly of the opening goal and us of a half-time lead, but I find myself clutching at straws.

The game was certainly there for the taking after the interval, and Walsall stepped up the urgency and took it, displaying a ruthlessness in their two finishes that we could only dream of. Zero shots on target for the home side tells its own story.

In all truth, it’s not been a spectacular couple of weeks. The abject thrashing at Mansfield, the first time a team has conceded nine goals in a Football League game for 26 years, silenced those few fans who were seeing us seven points off the top three and hoping against hope.

A freak result it may have been, but it highlighted the gulf in class between our gallant bunch of players and the current top five teams in the division.

I’m so glad work pressures prevented me from going to Field Mill and I couldn’t face disappointment at Crewe like last season. So to emerge from Gresty Road with a goalless draw was a major achievement and had me yelling ‘YEESSS!’ whilst punching the air in front of the radio, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the dog.

But, in all honesty, it had been a dull listen. Doing the ironing whilst it was on raised the excitement level and if I’d have actually been there in the Ice Cream Van Stand, I’d have been tearing my hair out with frustration at our lack of adventure.

One shot in ninety minutes, and that was off target, isn’t my idea of a Saturday afternoon’s entertainment at the expense of upwards of fifty quid.

I understand that things were extremely raw after the Day Before St. Valentine’s Day Massacre at Field Mill and the ship had to be steadied, but it’s just not my idea of entertainment.

And yes, it is possible to both approve and disapprove of something at the same time.

So, like I say, it’s been a difficult couple of weeks, but tempered by the fact that our last three away trips have been to teams in the top three and we’ve come away with two draws (I’ve confined Mansfield to the dim recesses of my memory).

Our position in seventh has always been a precarious one though. There are 10 teams in the middle of the table with barely a cigarette paper between them and, in my opinion, if we are to stay in contention around the play-offs, one or two things need to change.

Jack Muldoon leading the line on his own was surely only ever intended to be a stop-gap once Luke Armstrong had his head turned by Wrexham and refused to play on the opening day at Doncaster.

It worked, but we struggled to convert our chances that day and only won via a penalty. That Muldoon has played out of his skin since Christmas and Armstrong refused to play before Christmas has forced the manager’s hand somewhat, but we’re light upfront.

Our 4-2-3-1 formation may work when we’re seeing little of the ball away from home, or maybe that’s why we’re seeing little of the ball away from home, but we don’t seem to know what to do when we have plenty of it like on Saturday.

Josh March was brought in to fill the gap left by Armstrong. He was a popular signing after his first successful loan stint here during the pandemic, but looked leggy and seemed to be carrying an injury when he arrived.

Now he’s seemingly fit, he needs a couple of starts alongside Muldoon to show what he can do. We’ve spent too much money on him to leave him festering on the bench and, as the fourth lowest scorers in League Two, we need to create more in attack.

Whilst applauding Simon Weaver’s well-placed confidence in his starting XI, a little bit of squad rotation wouldn’t go amiss, especially in midfield.

The same 11 players being asked to turn out at Mansfield and then expected to be at the top of their game, having all played a gruelling ninety-eight minutes against Colchester four days earlier, would illustrate my point perfectly.

Minor gripes these may be, but there are 13 games left and it would be nice to keep progressing forward.