Rovers travel to Harrogate Town in Sky Bet League Two this weekend.
Danny Schofield’s side will head to the EnviroVent Stadium for a competitive fixture for the first time.
The last meeting:
Rovers fell to a 2-0 defeat when the two sides last met on March 7 at the Eco-Power Stadium.
Luke Armstrong and Alex Pattison both found the net in the final 10 minutes of the game to secure all three points for the visitors.
Harrogate’s recent form:
Simon Weaver’s side have lost just one of their past six league games, stretching back to their 2-0 win over Rovers. Their only defeat in recent weeks came four days later at Crawley, where they lost 3-1 having had Toby Sims sent off.
They picked up a crucial win in their fight for survival against Barrow on March 18, before ending March with a 1-1 draw at Tranmere Rovers.
Harrogate’s last two games finished 2-2 across the Easter period. They showed fighting spirit to come from 2-0 down against both AFC Wimbledon and league leaders Leyton Orient to grab two valuable points.
Key men:
Experienced midfielder Josh Falkingham has now made more than 200 appearances for Harrogate since joining the club in the summer of 2017.
After coming through the ranks at Leeds United, he moved north of the border in search of regular first team football in 2010.
He initially spent time on loan with St. Johnstone, before making a permanent move to Arbroath shortly after. He racked up more than 220 games, which included a four-year spell at Dunfermline before moving back south.
He has been key in helping Harrogate work their way into the EFL for the first time, and continues to be one of the first names on the teamsheet for Simon Weaver.
Another man with plenty of experience is Jack Muldoon, who signed for Harrogate a year after Falkingham and has since found the back on the net on a regular occurrence.
After spells with Rochdale and Halifax earlier on in his career, it was with Lincoln in 2015 where Muldoon found his feet with 79 appearances for the Imps. He moved to Fylde in 2017 but spend just one season there, and signed for Harrogate in the summer of 2018.
The 32-year-old is another player who has played a pivotal role in the club’s climb through the divisions, scoring 65 goals in 185 starts in all competitions.
Forward Luke Armstrong joined Harrogate in the summer of 2021 after an impressive loan spell at fellow Sky Bet League Two side Hartlepool United.
Armstrong had a spell with Middlesborough where he was allowed to move out on loan to the likes of Gateshead and Accrington Stanley, before a permanent move to Salford City in the summer of 2019. The 26-year-old found game time harder to come by with the Ammies and made the move back north to Victoria Park in December 2020.
At that stage Pools were still in the National League battling for promotion to the EFL, and Armstrong’s goals helped them to do just that. He struck 15 times in the second half of the campaign, including one in the play-off final against Torquay United, which they won on penalties.
He carried that form into his first season at Harrogate, scoring 14 goals, including one against former club Hartlepool. Armstrong has already matched that tally this time around, one of which came in the reverse fixture.
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