{"id":561615,"date":"2020-08-11T15:36:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T19:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=561615"},"modified":"2020-12-28T11:24:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T16:24:36","slug":"harrogate-town-make-first-signings-as-an-efl-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/08\/11\/harrogate-town-make-first-signings-as-an-efl-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrogate Town Make First Signings as an EFL Club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Harrogate Town have completed their first two signings as an EFL club. Midfielder Connor Kirby, who was on loan at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/08\/11\/macclesfield-town-relegated-from-league-two-after-efl-appeal-is-upheld\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Macclesfield Town<\/a> last season, arrives on a free transfer following his release from Sheffield Wednesday. Meanwhile, defender Jake Lawlor comes in after seeing his time at National League side Wrexham come to an end.<\/p>\n<h2>Harrogate Town Bring in Connor Kirby and Jake Lawlor<\/h2>\n<h3>Kirby Signs Following Sheffield Wednesday Release<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u270d\ufe0f | We are delighted to reveal our first Summer signing, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ConnorKirby98?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ConnorKirby98<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ProudToBeTown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ProudToBeTown<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oq1saLYlWb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/oq1saLYlWb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Harrogate Town AFC (@HarrogateTown) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HarrogateTown\/status\/1293215602224631812?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 11, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Twenty-one-year-old midfielder Kirby arrives following his release from Championship side Sheffield Wednesday. He spent last season on loan in League Two with Macclesfield and was the runner-up in their Player of the Season award.<\/p>\n<p>Kirby did break through at Wednesday, making his professional debut in April 2018 but he failed to nail down a regular place at Hillsborough.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the club website about Kirby&#8217;s addition, manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.harrogatetownafc.com\/news-media\/connor-kirby-is-our-first-summer-addition\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Simon Weaver said<\/a>: \u201cConnor acquitted himself very well at Macclesfield and had a really impressive season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a really energetic centre midfielder who is willing to break forward and put a tackle in, a good all-round, honest, hungry and talented lad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has already shown he can do it in League Two and he\u2019ll attack it with confidence, as soon as I met him I thought he would be a great fit for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Experienced Lawlor Joins From Wrexham<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u270d\ufe0f | Introducing our second signing of the day, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jake_Lawlor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Jake_Lawlor<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ProudToBeTown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ProudToBeTown<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qgIEYHO6pK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/qgIEYHO6pK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Harrogate Town AFC (@HarrogateTown) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HarrogateTown\/status\/1293245802140270598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 11, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This move sees Lawlor get his first crack at the EFL at the age of 29. He started his career with Ossett Town before having a spell with Town&#8217;s neighbours, Harrogate Railway.<\/p>\n<p>Lawlor then moved onto Guiseley and featured for AFC Fylde and Salford City before joining Wrexham in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the club website, manager Weaver said: \u201cI\u2019ve liked Jake for years, he\u2019s a good player and to add someone of Jake\u2019s experience still with that hunger to improve is a real lift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s local, talented lad and will do well here I\u2019m sure, getting the right characters in means everything to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"KXzWTn3TTahiYJgWJDJLPQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/157266344\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'KXzWTn3TTahiYJgWJDJLPQ',sig:'5jzeRtP4795UXAx8TdbhFIp-5ThOrzoL_4BoEWeVZcY=',w:'594px',h:'342px',items:'157266344',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harrogate Town have completed their first two signings as an EFL club. Midfielder Connor Kirby, who was on loan at Macclesfield Town last season, arrives on a free transfer following his release from Sheffield Wednesday. Meanwhile, defender Jake Lawlor comes in after seeing his time at National League side Wrexham come to an end. Harrogate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":561617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,30,28],"tags":[6359,168,4556,6360,520,6358,136],"class_list":["post-561615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-league12","category-news","category-transfers","tag-connor-kirby","tag-efl","tag-harrogate-town","tag-jake-lawlor","tag-league-two","tag-simon-weaver","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}