Harrogate Town 1 Boreham Wood 0 - Hero Jack Muldoon sends Town to Wembley and the brink of the Football League

The Wetherby Road outfit finished mid-table in the sixth tier of English football as recently as 2017, but are now looking forward to a Wembley play-off final against Notts County next weekend.

What makes their journey all the more special, according to captain Josh Falkingham, is that the majority of players who led Town out of National League North two years ago are still doing the business in black and yellow to this day.

Ten members of the squad who won Saturday’s National League play-off semi-final clash with Boreham Wood were part of Simon Weaver’s match-day 16 when Harrogate beat Brackley to clinch their place in the top tier of the non-league pyramid back in May 2018.

The bond that has been forged inside the Town dressing room over the last three years has undeniably helped fuel their progress. It also means that their achievements thus far taste all the sweeter for those involved.

What’s better than winning games of football? Winning them alongside your friends, in Falkingham’s opinion.

“Where we’ve come from, together as well – there’s a lot of us who got brought into the club three years ago – so to do it with the special bond that we’ve got within the group, what a feeling,” he said after his team’s 1-0 victory at the CNG Stadium.

“It’s a fantastic feeling and this is a great win that I felt we really deserved, to be honest.

“We all know our roles, and that’s what has got us here, 100 per cent.

“No matter who we’re playing against, pre-season friendly or semi-final of a play-off, we’ll always play our way and it just goes to show that when you stick to something that you believe in, then results will happen.

“We’re one game away from achieving somthing a lot bigger than just playing at Wembley.”

Given that they last played a game of competitive football on March 7 – more than four months ago – the pace and intensity at which Town begun their contest with Boreham Wood was staggering.

There were no signs of rust as they moved the ball around slickly and completed dominated their visitors for 40 minutes.

Despite this, it was the Hertfordshire club who went closest to drawing first blood on 11 minutes when Matt Rhead’s far-post header from a right-wing centre glanced the outside of an upright.

The next half an hour was however one-way traffic, with George Thomson the first Harrogate player to test visiting custodian Nathan Ashmore from inside the penalty area.

A dazzling burst down the left then saw Jack Diamond extend Ashmore before Jack Muldoon and Lloyd Kerry both drew fine stops out of the Wood goalkeeper with efforts from distance.

Debutant Aaron Martin looked set to break the deadlock after 35 minutes, only for Ashmore to somehow tip his fierce near-post blast over the cross-bar at point-blank range.

Yet, for all their superiority, Town could have found themselves behind at half-time.

First, Sorba Thomas got in behind down the left, but failed to find a finish, then Tyrone Marsh swept a shot from a short-corner narrowly over the bar.

That they had played so well during the opening 45 without making it count will doubtless have been playing on the hosts’ minds at the interval, with question marks hanging over their ability to continue to function at such a high tempo as the afternoon wore on.

And sure enough, the second period began with Wood seeing far more of the ball. A threatening raid down the right ended with Marsh forcing Belshaw to save with his feet before Rhead’s header was cleared off the goal-line by Connor Hall, Kabongo Tshimanga just unable to force the loose ball in at the back stick.

The breathless nature of the contest continued, Harrogate going straight down the other end where Muldoon, then Diamond stung the gloves of the over-worked Ashmore. The game looked on a knife-edge at this stage, but it was to be Town who struck a decisive blow with 64 minutes on the clock.

Thomson’s corner from the right was met by Will Smith and Muldoon was on hand to divert the ball into the net from inside the six-yard-box.

Jon Stead came close to adding a second when he curled a left-footer narrowly past the upright, then Wood’s golden chance to draw level came and went.

Justin Shaibu arrived unmarked at the far post to meet an inviting delivery from the right, though he couldn’t find a first-time finish with the goal gaping.

Another opportunity to equalise arrived four minutes from time as Femi Ilesnanmi lofted over a left-wing cross, and although the officials somehow missed the most blatant of shoves in the  back of Hall, Rhead powered his header over the top.

And that was as close as the Wood were to come as Town managed to negotiate four minutes of stoppage-time without any further scares.

Harrogate Town: Belshaw; Fallowfield, Smith, Hall, Burrell; Thomson (Emmett 80), Kerry, Falkingham, Diamond; Muldoon (Beck 90), Martin (Stead 62). Unused substitutes: Cracknell, Leesley, Harratt.

Boreham Wood: Ashmore; K. Smith, Fyfield (Yussuf 78), Champion, Ilesanmi; Ricketts, Murtagh, Thomas; Marsh (Shaibu 72), Tshimanga, Rhead. Unused substitutes: G.Smith, Stephens, Mingoia, Shakes.

Referee: S Mather.

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