Harrogate Town are still in with a chance of making their first-ever season in the National League an extremely successful one, with their play-off fate in their own hands.

There can’t have been too many Town supporters who would have expected to see their side sixth in the table and top scorers in the division, with the season entering its final stages, when the campaign kicked off last August.

What’s most impressive about their play-off push is that Simon Weaver’s side have found a second wind, after a poor run around Christmas and New Year threatened their status in the top seven.

They bounced back from this by winning six of their next eight league games, but they were unable to widen the gap between themselves and the chasing pack when they travelled to Barnet on Tuesday night.

Dave Tarpey’s goal condemned them to a 1-0 defeat against the struggling Bees, with manager Weaver left frustrated with a slow start reminiscent of the one Barrow AFC produced at The Hive at the start of the month.

Weaver told the club’s website: “On the evening, I just felt we lacked a bit quality in the final third to unlock, but having said that, we had some decent balls in, in those closing stages.

“But overall, we’ve just got to dust ourselves down from a disappointing night and credit to the players’ efforts in the second half. It’s the business end of the season and we have to move on quickly.”

Like Eastleigh last week, Harrogate will find the Bluebirds a different prospect to the outfit they faced that were still prone to drifting off in periods of games in the reverse fixture back in October.

After going in 1-0 up at half-time, AFC had what manager Ian Evatt described as a ‘mad 20 minutes,’ conceding four times in that time, as they crashed to a 4-2 defeat.

The last time Town visited Holker Street, Akil Wright scored a stoppage-time equaliser for Barrow, who eventually prevailed 4-2 in extra time in an FA Trophy first round replay in December 2016.