Who exactly is Steven Docherty?

So, Steven Docherty has been manager at Harrogate Town since late July time. He started his unofficial management at his Sunday League side Here For Beer and led them to 5 Irish Sunday League titles in Dublin. He also played a bit for them over the six years so he is well-known in the Sunday League setup in Dublin. After being recognised by Irish teams in Dublin, he applied for a University College team called U.C.D a.k.a University College Dublin. U.C.D were last placed, 9 points away from safety. He joined U.C.D in July, right in the middle of the season. The arrival of Docherty saw many arrivals into the Irish capital college with Paul Dunphy, Daniel Devine, Liam Burns, Shane Byrne, Julian Kelly and Stephen Elliot joining saw U.C.D fight back to 10th place, 14 points ahead of last placed Dundalk, who only got 1 point from the remaining 11 games.

Steven Docherty arrived at Harrogate one year after joining U.C.D after admitting Irish football had no future and nothing to look forward to and described moving to Harrogate 'an opportunity in a great footballing country' and has led Town to 1st place after 2 months into the new season. This could be a changing point in Docherty's career.

October - November Overview

We've only lost 2 games in these two months and are currently top of Blue Square Bet North. Its been a great start for me as an English league manager. I hope for more success to come.

Ooh another Steve;D Try giving Kean a run for his money;) But seriously, I live near Harrogate I think, so it's good to see you've got them on top of the table, keep it up:)

Yes!! Another good story on the forum! Keep it up!

Looks nice and creative and will look to see how this develops!! Good luck;)

Lucas: Keano v Docherty eh? Cheers, I live in Harrogate which is partly the reason I joined them

EH17: Thanks, will try and put a lot of effort into this story

Aaron: Cheers mate

I'm in love with England and Harrogate

I love it in England is not what you expect from your everyday Irishman but Harrogate manager Steven Docherty has admitted he is loving his time in charge of Harrogate as he heads into the new year and the first 6 months in charge of the Blue Square North side. This time last year, this club were sitting in mid-table and I was fighting against relegation in the Irish Premier League. So much has changed, I've made seven or eight signings since joining, I only signed one player in January and I know the fans would of liked a bit more activity last month but with us doing so well, there was no point in making signings for the sake of it. Money in the lower leagues is always tight, that's the case with every lower league club so the signings in August were adequate to get us into the top 5 halfway through the season. We've signed Damian Reeves on loan from Altrincham. This is a great signing because number one: Altrincham have lost a key player to a club in the same division and number two: Reeves is a clinical finisher and he will make our other strikers fight more for their spot which means more determination, which means more goals.

Harrogate's only signing in January, Damian Reeves scored 44 goals in 42 games for Altrincham last season but was placed in the reserves after wanting a move away from Altrincham this season after scoring 6 goals in 6 games for them this season. Reeves is earning £1,000 a week at Altrincham and as part of the deal, Harrogate only pay 10% of his wages which is only £100 a week for Harrogate.

December - January Overview

We are still top of the league but only have a 2 point lead on 2nd placed Guiseley and in this league it is incredibly important to develop a big lead on 2nd place as there is only one automatic promotion spot, as is the case with Blue Square South and Blue Square Premier. The good thing is that if we become level on points with Guiseley at some point towards the last games of the season, we will have the goal difference advantage with a huge +28 goal difference for us and an average +9 goal difference for Guiseley.

Docherty Completes Two Additions

Harrogate Town manager Steve Docherty has completed two additions to his Harrogate staff. Docherty signed Jak McCourt on loan from Leicester City. He has spent all of his season so far at Worksop who are in Blue Square North. Docherty's first game in charge was against Worksop and McCourt scored 2 goals whilst playing for Worksop, that game ended 3-2 to Harrogate Town. People are questioning Docherty's judgement on the signing, he made 22 appearances for Worksop with his only two goals coming in the game against Harrogate. McCourt will give us more options in midfield. He isn't our best center-midfielder but he will be filling in for some players if they aren't putting the effort in or they're injured or suspended.

The second addition to the staff at Harrogate Town is the new assistant manager Kevin Street. Street has experience as assistant manager before and a manager, he was player/assistant manager for Stafford Rangers and Nantwich Town. He was then promoted to player/manager at Nantwich after their previous manager was sacked. After those two spells at the clubs he then moved onto Harrogate's title rivals Guiseley as a player. He only made 2 appearances for Guiseley and now he has retired as a player at the age of 36 years old. I can't wait to get started and help the club out and working with Steve Docherty. I'm really happy said Street.

Harrogate Snap Up Godden

Harrogate Town have signed 22 year old Scunthorpe striker Matt Godden on a 1 year deal until 2015. He started off at Scunthorpe United in the 2007/08 season and only made 14 appearances for Scunthorpe, scoring 2 goals. Whilst under contract at Scunthorpe he went on loan to 3 clubs, Brigg Town, Ilkestone Town and Gainsborough Trinity and made a combined 35 appearances for them. Godden joins Harrogate on a permanent deal. He hasn't really had a chance at any other clubs. We are giving him a chance of promotion and first team football, we've bought one of the best players in the lower leagues today, its his time to prove it. Said manager Steve Docherty

February - March Overview

What a superb month. We haven't lost a single game in two months which has been the most successful two months in my career. We're getting closer and closer towards promotion every game but it will only take one loss to completely demoralise the team and to start getting bad results, we need to make sure that doesn't happen.

Should change the title, as it could be confusing! Good luck and make Anoruo shine!

2013-10-06 18:18#137073 Pauker : Should change the title, as it could be confusing! Good luck and make Anoruo shine!

Just realised the title myself And I have 5 1st team strikers, I'll try fit him in where I can Thanks Jeremy

2013-10-06 14:50#137076 Jack :

2013-10-06 18:18#137073 Pauker : Should change the title, as it could be confusing! Good luck and make Anoruo shine!

Just realised the title myself And I have 5 1st team strikers, I'll try fit him in where I can Thanks Jeremy

Five first team strikers? Play a 2-3-5 so they all get playing time every game!

The End Of The Season

So. What a season! We finished with a huge point gap on 2nd place Alfreton, 9 points ahead. Stockport County won the play-off final which means they are promoted alongside us but being champions is always more honourable than a play-off struggle. I'm proud of my team but it needs serious improvement to provide a challenge. I'm aiming to get a mid-table finish next season, we will try our best to avoid relegation, time will tell but we will celebrate our season in The Woodlands, just down the road from our stadium, Wetherby Road which is currently receiving a stadium expansion to fit all our fans in. I'm expecting a lot more season ticket holders this season as we are playing much more entertaining football.

Individual Awards

Woking suck balls, Kane knows that.

August Overview

To say we're predicted to come bottom by the end of the season, we've probably had the brightest start in the league. We are sat in 4th place in the league after winning the Blue Square North. We had brought in 20 first team players during the off-season and the 2-1 loss to Woking was a gelling process in my eyes. From that, we've improved and gelled so much we've gone unbeaten since. It's a cracking start.

Transfers

As I said, we'd brought in 20 players who are in the first team this year and all of last seasons squad have left the club in the transfer window, including Patrick Smith.

Joaquín Larrivey

Larrivey joins us as a coach and player, he's heading towards the end of his playing career so it's important we get the best out of him.

Henry Charnock

Charnock is one of the youngest players to join us, he made 11 appearances for Seattle last season in the MLS, he's one of the biggest impact signings I have made.

Réginal Goreux

Not many good players emerge out of Haiti but Goreux is good enough for us and this level. He suits us fine and has made a great impact on the side.

Ángel Dealbert

Dealbert and Samuel are our two starting center backs this season and are already proving why, putting in solid performances in all games so far

Vagiz Galiulin

Galiulin brings a large amount of top level experience after spending most of his career at Russian Premier League side Rubin Kazan, he's scored 1 goal and made 1 goal so far in the two games he's played

Djako Arafat

Arafat has spent most of his career in Asia and Eastern Europe after spells in Qatar and Russia. We are currently playing him in left winger, even though his favourite position is striker, we'll give him the chance at striker from time to time if we have to though.

Jan Tigorev

We don't currently have a defensive midfield slot in the starting 11 so we want to play Jan in center midfield and hope he develops into a center midfielder.

Youssouf Hersi

One of the more experienced players, Hersi has had top level experience at Ajax, NAC Breda, NEC Nijmegen, sc Heerenveen, Vitesse, FC Twente, AEK Athens, De Graafschap, Alki Larnakas and Wanderers FC. He is 32 and is on a reasonably cheap wage of £900 per week.

Alexandre Frade

If Frade plays well for us, if he's lucky he may become a Portuguese international one day, he's only 20 years old and plays defensive midfield better but can play center midfield comfortably.

Ivan Cavaleiro

Cavaleiro started his career at SL Benfica but was moved down to SLB B last season and made 11 appearances for them before being released. He can play both wings which is very helpful for us and is capped for Portugal's Under-21 side.

Michael Kay

Kay is our back-up right back and is a great back up to have, we signed him from Blue Square Bet Premier rivals Chester which is good for when we play them

Conor Thomas

Thomas is our best signing by a mile, he is a brilliant playmaker and can pass a ball with perfect perfection and you can always rely on him to not mess up.

Grenndy Perozo

Perozo is a great defender but is being kept out of the side by Samuel and Dealbert but I will be able to call on him whenever the defenders get injured.

Roberto Vitiello

Vitiello is our number one right-back and will be for a few more years, he's had spells at Siena, Rimini, Vicenza and Cesena which gives him a bit of experience in the top leagues in Europe.

Sean St. Ledger

Many Championship football followers will know St. Ledger well and know his talent and weaknesses. He's played at this level before for Stevenage back in 2004 when he was on loan from Peterborough.

Samuel

Samuel is our best center back in the side. He can stop a threatening attack and make a goal line clearance. He has everything that is required in a great center back at this level.

Cheick Doukouré

Doukouré is one of the best players we signed this season. He is a center midfielder and only 21 with a wealth of top flight experience under his belt with having spells at FC Lorient and Sparta Rotterdam

Vasco Regini

Regini is our best left back, he's young which means he will be staying with us for a long time hopefully as he's a class player.

Michal Danek

After we sold Simonsen, we had to make rush signings for the goalkeeper department, luckily two good keepers were still on the market, Danek and Nuredinovski

Edin Nuredinovski

He's currently our number 1 keeper but has competition with Danek fighting for his place which is great to have in a side.

Players Out

Jack Emmet - Released
Brendan Clarke - Released
Mikkel Beckmann - Released
Dwayne Samuels - Released
Michael Woods - Free to Chesterfield
Stephen Folan - Released
Chris Whelpdale - Released
Jordan Elmsley - Released
Leigh Franks - Free to Wycombe Wanderers
Steve Simonsen - Free to Hartlepool United
Ahmed Ammi - Free to Shrewsbury
Patrick Smith - £100,000 to Birmingham City
Sean McDermid - Released
Craig Nelthorpe - 6 month loan to Bradford Park Avenue
Chris Chapman - Released
Shane Killock - Released
Matt Godden - Released
Juan Huerta - Released