Harrogate Town must be fast 'out of the blocks' when they return from enforced break

Saturday’s scheduled League Two fixture at Newport County was called off and rearranged for April 25 due to three members of the Exiles’ squad receiving international call-ups.

That postponement denied the Sulphurites the opportunity to build on their 1-0 home win over Barrow last time out and potentially move nine points clear of the relegation zone.

Instead, they have had to settle for a week of hard graft on the training ground followed by a weekend off to rest and recuperate.

"I’d much rather have had a game because that’s what you want when you’re coming off the back of a positive result, you want the chance to try and build on it and get some momentum,” Weaver told the Harrogate Advertiser.

"We’ve ended up with an enforced break, but the really positive thing is that we went into what is a long time without a game feeling a lot better about ourselves. It would have been a lot worse had we had all that time to be reflecting on and thinking about a defeat.

"So there has been a lighter feel about the place and the lads have worked really hard.

"We gave them the weekend off to get some rest into them and they earned it with the effort they have put into the sessions during the week.

"But it means that there can be no excuses not to be fresh and coming out of the blocks fast at Tranmere on Friday evening. We need to bring intensity.”

Town head to Prenton Park 20th in the League Two standings and six points clear of the bottom two.

Their recent inactivity provided fellow strugglers Crawley and Colchester with the opportunity to leapfrog them, but neither side managed to do so and both remain a point worse off than the Sulphurites despite having played a game more.

Crawley beat rock-bottom Rochdale at the weekend and then were held at home by Grimsby in midweek, while Colchester drew with Tranmere. Meanwhile, 23rd-placed Hartlepool took a point off leaders Leyton Orient but failed to make significant inroads into the gap between themselves and the three teams immediately above them.

"Crawley have played their games in hand and really attacked that opportunity but as yet they haven’t caught up to us,” Weaver added.

"We know what the picture looks like. It’s very tight down there. We are not in denial about the situation, however our fate is in our own hands.

"We know that there are going to be a lot of twists and turns between now and the end of the season, but it is about what we do that will determine where we finish.

"It’s about having the right attitude towards the challenge we are faced with.”

On how many games Town need to win between now and the end of the season to ensure they beat the drop, Weaver continued: "I’m not sure about the required number of points to stay up.

"We haven’t set ourselves a specific target, all we are doing is focusing on the next game and taking each one as it comes.”