Lee Ashforth (right) says Harrogate Railway have a tough start to the Evo Stik Division One North season
Lee Ashforth admits Harrogate Railway have to overcome a tough start in the Evo Stik Division One North.
The Evo Stik League begins tomorrow and Railway host Mossley at Station View.
Billy Miller’s men then have trips to Scarborough Athletic and Droylsden before a home clash with local rivals Farsley AFC all in a short space of time.
Assistant manager Ashforth told Non League Yorkshire: “We have to get as many points on the board as quick as we can.
“We always say that the first three points is massive.
“I actually think if you look at the league it will be stronger than last year, certainly with the top sides.
“We have three really hard games to start with – Mossley, Scarborough and Droylsden.
“We then have Farsley on Bank Holiday Monday so we have four games in nine days to kick off the season.
“Now we haven’t set specific targets for that, but we think we can give a good account of ourselves in those four games.
“Come Bank Holiday Monday we will find out whether our squad is good enough like we think it is.”
Ashforth has been in charge during the summer as Miller was away on business commitments in the United States of America until recently.
Looking back on the experience, he said: “It’s been a learning curve for me.
“Billy has been away before as I took charge of the first three league games last season.
“They were in a shorter space of time so this was slightly different.
“He was away for three and a half weeks so I had to deal with everything from top to bottom – matches, training, players.
“Billy said to me that when he got back from America that he wanted to know what I thought the starting line-up should be for the Mossley game so he could look at the last two pre-season games.
“He’s agreed with me and I’ve gone through every individual with him like whether they are fit enough and how they have been playing.”
Railway have retained all but two from their squad that surprised many last season.
Colin Hunter has retired and Craig Radcliffe has gone to Knaresborough Town.
Harrogate do have a couple of injury worries for the visit of Mossley, but only Rob Youhill is definitely ruled out.
And Ashforth looks back on pre-season as a successful one.
“The plan during pre-season was to get as much pitch-time as possible for the players we have got without burning them out,” he added.
“We feel we have done that. Going into the Mossley, pre-season has gone really well. We haven’t been beat.
“Whilst, we’re not particularly bothered about the results, we have gone eight games undefeated.
“We’re going into the Mossley game with a good bill of health and hopefully we can go and get three points.”