The Avenue Reserves have only played one home game so far this season and the draw in the Bradford District Cup was also kind enough to give them an away tie at East Bierley, where they faced Gomersal and Cleckheaton Reserves.
Aenue got off to the perfect start by taking a third minute lead, when Haris Khan teed up Michael Douglas, who floated a a superb shot into the top right hand corner.
Almost immediately though, the home side levelled following confusion in the Avenue defence. Instead of clearing the ball, which looked the easier option, Gomersal snatched the opportunity to achieve parity.
Moments later, Avenue re-took the lead. Connor Douglas hit a rasping shot that was brilliantly saved by the Gomersal goalkeeper. From the resulting corner the ball dropped nicely for McKenzie Murphy, who forced the ball in from short range.
Despite playing against the wind, Avenue kept the ball on the ground and created numerous chances. Some went begging, but one that didn’t involved a superb strike from M.Douglas that was parried into the path of Oskar Wota, who tapped home to give Avenue a 3-1 lead.
It was one way traffic, but a rare break upfield saw Gomersal score again to reduce the deficit just after the half hour.
A moment of mirth occurred on 38 minutes when the referee blew for half time. Realising his mistake, the official put his hands up and then re-started play.
Those seven minutes saw Avenue effectively put the tie to bed.
In double quick time, Avenue scored twice, first when Reuben Armitage laid on a pass that M. Douglas finished with a stunning strike, and then Wota chipped the goalkeeper for number five, once again assisted by Armitage.
Winning 5-2, and a stiff wind behind them, Avenue made a change at the start of the second half when Lucas Shaw came on for Jodi Tiffany. However, the first action of note after the interval came when Avenue goalkeeper Luke Morris made a superb stop in a one on one situation.
Avenue coach, Owen Murphy made more changes when M.Douglas, Rico Feltham, Murphy and Khan made way for Josh Owen, Abdoul Aziz Diallo, Tidiane Diallo and Max Walker respectively.
Recently introduced, substitute Shaw made an almost instant impact when he gathered an initial scuffed effort by T. Diallo, and fired into the net for Avenue’s sixth goal.
The final two moments of action occurred within a couple of minutes of each other late in the game.
Avenue were awarded a penalty, but instead of finding the net, Wota saw his effort saved by the home goalkeeper diving to his left. From that save, the ball was launched upfield and a foul by Avenue led the official to award, what the visitors thought was, a penalty. However, the ball was placed just outside the area and from the free-kick, a lovely shot rounded the Avenue defensive wall and entered the net to give final scoreline of Gomersal and Cleckheaton Reserves 3 Bradford (Park Avenue) 6.
Hopefully the draw for the next round will give the Reserves the chance to play a home tie.
Match report by David Brewis.