The appointment of Chris Hardy has seen Whitby Town transform from relegation candidates to promotion hopefuls in less than a year – but the Buildbase FA Trophy remains high on the north Yorkshire club’s agenda.
And the man with the Midas touch is confident of a deep run into the competition, as long as they treat fellow high-flyers Shaw Lane with the respect they too have earned this season.
Hardy joined the Blues last December with the club five points away from safety in the Northern Premier League Premier Division.
Shaw Lane v Whitby Town
The Buildbase FA Trophy
Second Round Qualifying
3pm, Saturday 12 November 2016
Shaw Lane, Barnsley
Fast forward 11 months and they are looking down on everyone from first place.
A league below, fellow Yorkshire outfit Shaw Lane are ruling the roost in Division One South and 41-year-old Hardy admits the difference between the two in-form teams will be negligible come Saturday.
“This is my first season managing in the FA Trophy and there’s certainly scope to get a run together if we get a favourable draw, with the National League teams to come in,” said the former Guisborough Town manager.
“It will be a good experience for the boys and we’ve given this an awful lot of priority approaching this year, so we’ll be putting our best foot forward.
“The difference between the leagues goes out of the window given the competition. The fact they are a club with good resources, and with some very good, experienced players, means that everything will be averaged out and will come down to who puts in a performance.”
With the Blues on a six-game unbeaten streak, thoughts of promotion are growing more realistic with each week.
But Hardy is aware that there will be pitfalls along the way.
“Things like this are never simple,” he added.
“We had a fairly big player recruitment drive and a lot of work behind the scenes that helped us stay in the league last season.
“Reaching the play-offs was the discussed target in a two-year timeframe and this was going to be a year of consolidation.
“Given the start we have had the objective has moved on a bit, but this is uncharted territory and we have to be quite mindful that this is a new squad of players that have just come together.”
FA Trophy history
Whitby Town’s greatest era to date came just before the turn of the millennium, as the 1996-97 FA Vase winners went all the way to the FA Trophy fifth round in 1999 before being stopped by Emley.
Shaw Lane were officially established four years ago and entered the competition for the first time last season, bowing out in second round qualifying.
Did you know?
During their glory years Whitby Town reached the first round proper of the FA Cup in 1997 and ran Hull City, then of Division Three, all the way.
Having held Hull to a 0-0 draw in Scarborough, the Blues took a 4-3 lead at Boothferry Park only to be pegged back in the last minute of normal time – and then went on to lose 8-4 after extra-time.
One to watch
Former Huddersfield Town midfielder Dale Hopson could cause problems on Saturday – he has already scored 11 goals for Whitby this season.
“He scores a lot of goals and has a habit of getting into advanced positions,” said Hardy. “He is involved in our good attacking play an awful lot.”
The prize
A sum of £3,250 is on offer for the victor as well as a place in third round qualifying where the National League North and South clubs enter.
