1 City remain consistently inconsistent
The promise suggested by the 2-1 FA Cup victory at Salford seven days earlier was quickly doused by a lacklustre derby-day display that frustratingly means the Minstermen still cannot build any sustained momentum in the country’s sixth tier. With 13 matches now played, including the Cup tie, Gary Mills’ team have only succeeded in putting together five and four-game unbeaten runs, meaning Russ Wilcox remains the last City chief to go a modest six matches without a loss, as he preserved Football League status in April 2015.
You then have to trawl back another year for the last time the club racked up three straight victories, as Nigel Worthington’s side secured a League Two play-off spot. That 2014 sequence also painfully represents the last time City completed a full calendar month of fixtures without a defeat.
Stringing together a long sequence of positive results is now essential if Mills’ team are to establish themselves as convincing promotion candidates because, only producing the goods on sporadic occasions, is heaping pressure on to their manager at a level where every defeat is regarded as a major setback.
2 Kaine Felix’s selection as the focal point for attacks didn’t work
The twinned absence of Jon Parkin and Michael Rankine was always going to prove troublesome at Harrogate and Felix’s employment as a lone centre-forward looked flawed from the first whistle when home defender Terry Kennedy made his presence felt by winning two towering headers. Mills rightly pointed out that the service to the former Boston winger did him few favours prior to his half-time withdrawal but, equally, he lacked the intelligent movement required to use his pace and exploit the gaps between the home back four.
As a tactical experiment, it failed in a similar fashion to Rankine’s employment in a wide-left role at Southport and is unlikely to be repeated again from the start of a game.
3 Alex Whittle’s tempo and purpose needed to be matched
The rampaging left back managed his team’s only two goal attempts of the opening half hour, but his energy levels were only matched by those in yellow-and-black striped shirts and the pace of City’s play in all areas of the pitch must be quicker in future games. Adriano Moke added a little more conviction intermittently following his half-time introduction and the Minstermen have to now rediscover the rhythm and speed that saw them sweep aside play-off contenders Bradford Park Avenue last month.
4 No team can carry passengers in a derby
Every Harrogate Town player contributed to their team’s victory without necessarily looking individually superior to a visiting team, whose pedigrees in the game are, by and large, more notable. The likes of experienced pair Amari Morgan-Smith and Simon Heslop, along with former Cardiff City midfielder Theo Wharton, will have left Wetherby Road unable to count on one hand the telling contributions they had made on a laboured afternoon.
Similarly, Hamza Bencherif was below-par at the back and, with a small squad where few places are genuinely under threat, every City player must achieve a regular high standard of performance – not just short-lived ripostes to poor displays - if the club are to have any hope of bridging the current 11-point gap to the top two teams in the division.
5 There are a growing number of City fans questioning Gary Mills’ position as boss
The angry reaction by some supporters standing behind the dugout at the final whistle made it clear that they held the manager culpable, as is the norm in the football industry, for a disappointing fourth defeat of the season. Mills later acknowledged himself that he has to do his job a bit better but, while sacking the boss is often seen as the cure to all ills at many clubs up and down the country, the next few weeks could present a crucial juncture in the Minstermen’s history.
Given their status, financial clout and calibre of the squad assembled, City should be in a stronger league position, but still occupy a play-off spot and have beaten title favourites Salford already this term. Whether a change would work, given the players’ loyalty to Mills – few would have committed to National League North football in the summer without his continued employment – is also highly debatable.
The club can surely ill afford another season in which two different managers are given the funds to assemble their own roster of players. Fans agitating for Mills’ departure must be confident too that a better replacement could be identified by chairman Jason McGill and perhaps even chief executive Jackie McNamara – it is not clear whether the unsuccessful former manager would be involved in any selection process for a new appointment, but he did sit in on the meeting that led to his eventual successor taking over the reins last autumn.
If the experienced former Notts County, Wrexham and Gateshead chief was to leave, then the next choice would need to be absolutely spot on.
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