Josh Falkingham insists that positivity during difficult start to the season has enabled Harrogate Town to turn the tide

That was the situation facing Josh Falkingham and his Harrogate Town team-mates at the back end of November, prior to them recording back-to-back victories over Mansfield and Rochdale.

The League Two standings now make decidedly better reading for the Sulphurites, who head into this weekend’s home showdown with high-flying Northampton five points clear of the drop zone and fresh off the back of a 4-1 success at Spotland.

Naturally, Simon Weaver’s team will tackle the Cobblers with a great deal more confidence than they might have done earlier in the season, but skipper Falkingham insists that despite a run of form which saw them beaten times in those 14 league outings, Town have remained positive throughout.

Indeed, the 33-year-old former Leeds United midfielder says that it was their determination to go about their business without being consumed by the doom and gloom which accompanies a relegation scrap that has enabled them to start to turn things around.

And that outlook extended into the early stages of last weekend’s clash with Rochdale, which saw them go a goal down after just seven minutes before storming back to record an emphatic win over their fellow strugglers.

"We have been really positive in the camp," said Falkingham. "It's been difficult on the run we’ve been on and because of the start to the season we have had, but you have to stay positive – and we were at Rochdale.

"It was a tough start. Their goal was against the run of play and we were desperately disappointed to concede like we did, but I felt that reaction-wise and the way we stood up to the test, we did well. We kept calm, we kept cool, knowing we'd started the game quite well. We stayed positive and kept going.

"You just have to stay positive in those moments. We are going to suffer disappointments during games and big moments, and throughout this season, if we are being totally honest we haven't dealt with a lot of those moments properly.

"But on Saturday, we were really positive, we regrouped. We came back to the centre circle for the kick-off and you've got to take a deep breath – we were playing well, so it’s my job to keep talking to people, telling the lads when they’re doing well.

"The players who came into the team with not many minutes, it would have been easy for them in particular to have gone under, but they kept doing what they were doing. There was a lot of energy, particularly at the top end of the pitch and everybody else backed it up.”

Backing up November’s 3-0 success over Mansfield was particularly important for Town, who hadn’t managed to win consecutive League Two fixtures this season until last weekend.

And the significance of their game at Spotland was heightened further by two other factors - Rochdale’s position just one place behind them in the table, and the nature of their dismal FA Cup defeat to Hartlepool seven days earlier.

"We’re absolutely delighted to beat Rochdale, particularly with it being such a big game against the side one place and one point below us in the table,” Falkingham added.

"Coming away from home where our record has been nowhere near good enough, the pressure was on and we knew it, and so I think the lads deserve a lot of credit.

"We needed a big performance, especially after last week at Hartlepool, we need to find some consistency in the league and really put some results together.

"We've been on a run of performances where we feel results could have been better, but on Saturday we definitely backed up the performance with a result.

"A lot of hard work on the training ground went into it. We had to change things because of injuries in key areas, suspensions, it was back-against-the-wall kind of stuff. It was about sticking our chests out and delivering a performance, not talking about it and saying we have been playing well without getting the results, we needed to come out and do it – and we definitely did it.”

Town arrived in Greater Manchester 20th in the League Two standings, just two points clear of the relegation zone.

Had they lost, results elsewhere could have dropped them into the bottom two. But, the combination of their own victory and defeats for Colchester, Gillingham and Hartlepool mean that Falkingham and his team-mates now sit five points clear of 23rd place.