Harrogate Railway manager Billy Miller and his assistant Lee Ashforth (right) are not contemplating an assault on the play-offs just yet
Harrogate Railway supporters are entitled to dare to dream after seven consecutive victories in all competitions, according to Billy Miller.
Railway, who visit Brighouse Town tomorrow, have shot up to the Evo Stik Division One North table and lie on the outskirts of the play-offs.
Miller, whose side have scored in every game this season, is not even contemplating an assault on the play-offs, just yet, but he is happy for the committee and supporters to start dreaming.
“We just have to be patience and we have some difficult fixtures over the Christmas period,” he told Non League Yorkshire.
“We’re going to play three of the top teams in the league, amongst others.
“If we can get through Christmas and see where we are then maybe we might start looking (at the play-offs).
“The league has become a little disjointed because of FA Cup runs and games getting called off so all we can do is keep picking up the three points and get them on the board.
“The next target is 40 points and then after that we’ll see where we can go.
“It is hard because we’re trying to manage expectations now.
“Everyone’s getting excited and the club deserve to. It is down to me and Ash to manage the expectations of the players, but the club is well within its right to get excited.”
When Miller and Lee Ashforth arrived at Station View in 2012, Harrogate had just been awarded a reprieve from relegation back to the Northern Counties East League.
The pair came in with a three-year-plan designed to engineer a revival of the club’s fortunes.
That ends in May and Miller is hoping to sit down with the club soon to discuss next season.
“It had been a difficult period and it was well documented that before we came in they had been given a reprieve so we could have been playing Northern Counties East League football,” Miller said.
“We have gone on record to say that one of our promises to the club in our initial three-year-plan was that we would try and establish Harrogate Railway as a good Evo Stik side.
“That’s what we have tried to do and I think we’re nearly there. What we have to do is sit down with (chairman) Nige (Corner) and the rest of the committee and see where we go next.
“Once we get those plans in place, we can put the next blueprint down.
“We can start soon and I’ve spoken to Nige and hopefully the minimum budget for next season will hopefully be set by the end of January.
“We can then start talking to players saying this is where we are and this is where we’re going to be next year, ‘what are your thoughts’
“It is well-documented that we have a small group of players who enjoy the environment and being at the club and in terms of the model we saw Ramsbottom go from the North West Counties to the Evo Stik Premier Division in four or five years.
“They did that by getting a good group of players together and having a bit of self-belief.”
Railway have winger Scott Manning from southern side Gorleston FC. Manning is a local University student.