Written by Max
Ground #50
Saturday 18th February 2023
League 2
Harrogate Town 2-2 Crewe Alexandra
Attendance: 2,607
Entry: £20 (standing)
Harrogate Town AFC were formed in 1914 but as they were just about to play their first competitive game, all matches were postponed as the first world war broke out. That club disbanded and then reformed once again in 1919. The club were founding members of the NCEL in 1982. They were then promoted in the the Northern Premier League division 1 where they spent 15 seasons before being promoted to the NPL Premier division in 2002.
Just 2 years later the club had won another promotion getting them into the Conference North in 2004. In 2016, after struggling for a few seasons, the club decided to turn professional in order to move forward again. This decision paid off almost instantly as the club were promoted into the National League just 1 year later. The club took to this new level quickly and made it to the play offs in their first 2 seasons at the level. In the second year they faced Notts County in the final and won promotion into the Football League for the first time. A remarkable rise from a local non league side to a professional, football league side in just over 20 years.
Today’s game saw them come up against fellow strugglers Crewe Alexandra in an important game for 2 sides looking to keep some distance between themselves and the bottom 2.
The first half saw Harrogate looking much the better side with some much quicker passing and neat play in the midfield. The opening goal came as one of a string of poor kicks from Crewe keeper Dave Richards went straight out for a throw in. From the throw the hosts caught Crewe napping and a long ball was allowed to bounce by the Alex defence letting the forward win thee ball and score a neat half volley into the bottom corner.
The visitors had a huge chance right before the break but as one shot ricocheted off the post, the rebound was hit straight at the Harrogate keeper. A huge chance!
Into the second half and just 5 minutes in the Harrogate lead was doubled as a corner dropped to an unmarked player on the edge of the box who powered it home. It was far too easy and fans in the away end, which was right behind the dugouts, started to turn on the team and the manager.
The game was becoming really scrappy now as both teams showed how poor the quality is at the lower end of League 2 this season. Just as everyone in the Crewe end was ready to give up all hope a counter attack from nowhere saw striker Dan Agei taken down in the box and the ref pointed to the spot! Agei stepped up to take the spot kick himself and he tucked it away nicely sending the keeper the wrong way.
This goal with just 7 minutes to go seemed to finally get Crewe going and suddenly they looked like a different team. Defender Rod McDonald was moved up front and Harrogate were getting deeper and deeper as they tried to hold on to the one goal advantage. They couldn’t hold on though as substitute Tariq Uwakwe scored his first goal for The Alex in the 89th minute to send the sell out away following into pandemonium! After 82 minutes of the dullest low quality football you are likely to see, us along with the 500 travelling fans went home happy with an extremely undeserved but vital point in the fight to remain a football league club.
Now to see how we rated our day at Wetherby Road:
Location: 5/10
Wetherby Road Stadium is around a 20 minute walk from the train station in the opposite direction of the Town centre. There aren’t any pubs near to the ground but we found a perfectly named pub called ‘The Alexandra’ in the Town centre which we of course had to go in before watching Crewe Alexandra.
Kit: 5/10
Harrogate’s kit this season is the perfect example of how a sponsor can really make or break a shirt. Sadly for Harrogate it is the latter! A nice design of yellow with black stripes ruined by a massive red square in the centre!
Facilities: 2/10
The away end at Wetherby Road has a small kiosk next to the turnstiles which is home to all the refreshments. The area in front of the kiosk is very small which meant fans were queuing along the front of the stand to get their food and drinks. This created a bit of a traffic jam with other fans trying to make their way into the terrace. There is no undercover area so as half time approached fans were forced to queue in the rain.
Look: 4/10
As mentioned earlier, Harrogate Town have been in non-league for almost their entire history and this is very much a non-league ground at present. The ground holds 5,000 fans with 1,000 seats. These are all found in 2 new stands opposite the away end. These are both very smart looking new stands which look quite unique being filled with bright yellow seats.
Behind one goal is the home terrace which was filled with the more noisy Harrogate fans.
The stand we were in was split in half with the 500 away fans housed in one half of the standing terrace. There are a small number of seats in this stand for visiting supporters. The terrace was of decent quality but felt very cramped with a sell out away end at today’s game. This seemed rather unnecessary with the small stand behind the goal closed for today’s game which could have been used to spread fans out more.
I’d say the ground is a victim of the clubs success. As fans of non-league we certainly didn’t dislike Wetherby Road, although the ground certainly needs a few more improvements to get it football league ready, especially for visiting supporters.
Food & Drink: 5/10
We decided to get our food before the game in order to avoid the large queues at half time. We went for a burger which were were shocked to see was £6.50 with an extra pound for a slice of cheese. This is more than double what we would usually pay for a burger at the football so we just had the one between us.
It was nice to get some fresh salad and pickles in the burger and there was a good selection of sauces available to add to the burger. The patty itself was thick and juicy. Compared to other food at football league grounds it was very nice, but definitely not worth the price.
Sadly there was no alcohol sold in the away end so we went for a diet coke.
TOTAL SCORE: 21/50
We both really enjoyed our weekend in Harrogate, mainly due to the Town itself rather than the 90 minutes of football! For 10 minutes though Crewe actually looked like they knew how to play football and to come back from 2 goals down in the final 10 minutes shows the players do have some fight. We’re just no sure what was going on for the other 80 minutes!
If you would like to see where this places Harrogate in our Football League leader board click here: THE 92
If you’d like the non-league grounds we have visited click here: NON LEAGUE
Emma’s Ground Guide 