Harrogate Town
Harrogate will be making only their second visit to The Memorial Stadium on Saturday, having lost 3-0 on their first visit back on 13th March 2022 when goals from Aaron Collins (2) and Elliot Anderson sealed a win for Joe Barton’s side.
James Belshaw and Bryant Bilongo are two players to have turned out for both sides. Belshaw joined Rovers from
Harrogate and appeared in 80 league games before finding his way back to his former club and making 51 appearances in all competitions for them last season.
Bilongo spent the second half of last season on loan at Harrogate and, hqav9ing scored our first goal of the 2024/25 season, will he be able to do it again in our first game of 2025/26.
Jon Stead, now part of Darrell Clarke’s management team, ended his playing career with Harrogate, where he was a team mate of Belshaw, while James Day is another to have turned out for both clubs.
Rovers’ boss Darrell Clarke has, at the time of writing, signed eight new players but expects more before the transfer deadline on 1st September.
It will be interesting to see who Darrell names in his starting XI and to see if the two former players who have returned to the club, Alfie Kilgour and Ellis Harrison will be making their second debuts.
Speaking about pre-season on the club’s website, he said this; ‘It has been a manic period. There have been quite a few changes at the training ground. Obviously, there have been changes in personnel and a lot of changes in what I want the culture and the environment to be.
‘I think testament to the lads and all of the staff. We’ve got a lot of new staff and a few new players in the building, and it’s gone really well in a lot of aspects. So, I’ve been pretty pleased with the environment. There’s plenty of work to continue to make sure the non-negotiables are met with the way they do things and the way we do our business, but I’ve been pleased with it.’
His Harrogate counterpart, Simon Weaver, said this ahead of tomorrow’s opening fixture; ‘I’m expecting a big home crowd to be roaring them on, we’ve got to be calm in that chaos, manage ourselves with discipline and execute the game plan to the best of our ability.
“We expect them to be up for it under a new Manager who has had success there before, we’ve worked on the systems they have utilised in pre-season, so we know what to expect in terms of shape and we’ve worked hard to prepare the lads for that.’
Harrogate will be missing the following players through injury; George Thomson, Levi Sutton and Jack Muldoon.
The waiting is over, and we look forward to a new season with optimism. Whatever happens this season, we can be sure that Darrell will send his side out looking to win and give 100% for the shirt. Time to get behind the side as we get underway with a home game.
Don’t forget that the Supporters Club have produced an eight page programme for this game.
We invite you all to join in with a minute’s applause in the 38th minute as we remember Roy Dolling.