Bradford (Park Avenue) came into the month on the back of a barren spell that threatened to derail their charge to the National League.

Step forward Conor Branson.

Versatile Branson took the month of March by the scruff of the neck and made it his.

Not content with keeping things tight at the back, only Jake Beesley scored more for the Avenue through the month than Branson himself.

Solid draws against Curzon Ashton, Alfreton Town and Southport were backed up with a win against Leamington.

Branson was then the difference in wins against Ashton United and fellow promotion pushers Spennymoor Town.

Unfortunately, Conor Branson was unable to collect his award this week.

Avenue will seek to recreate the form shown at the Aggborough last season as they look to put additional distance between them and the chasing pack.

It’s been almost a year since Bradford last visited the Aggborough Stadium for a standard league game on the last day of the 2017/18 season.

For the Avenue faithful the day will go down as one of the most memorable in recent history. Having gone 1-0 down in the 1st quarter of an hour, it took until well into the second half for Frank Mulhern to find an equaliser.

With the clock ticking down and news of Spennymoor’s victory over Southport filtering through to the away fans, any hopes of a playoff spot began to slip away until, in the final moments of the game, Adam Boyes arrived at the back post to slot the ball home and sent the travelling green army into a frenzy.

Just four days later Bradford returned to the Aggborough, this time finding the Harriers much easier to handle with a 2 goals to nil sealing a 6th consecutive win and a pass through to the playoff semi-finals.

This time round, Bradford go to Kidderminster 9 points ahead of the hosts, who sit just outside the playoffs, albeit 5 points adrift.

Kidderminster have lost their last two games and now have a lot of ground to cover in order to catch up and secure a playoff spot. But with both Telford and Altrincham holding games in hand, the Harriers could potentially go 8 points adrift.

Avenue will go into Saturday’s game looking for a repeat of last season’s form in order to put further distance between them and the chasing pack, as well as to climb the table and secure a lucrative home playoff fixture.

Read on to find out about key opposition players, the away ground historical results, as well as news closer to home:

Bradford (Park Avenue)  have moved to add attacking options in their push to the Play Offs campaign by adding Hull City Teen Hotshot Keane Lewis-Potter.

Lewis-Potter is a highly rated  forward at Hull and was rewarded with a 3 year Professional Contract on February 28th by Nigel Adkins having netted 8 goals ast under 18 level for the Tigers and an impressive 17 goals for the under 23s this season.

A regular at training with Adkins first team,  18 year old Lewis-Potter was included in the first team in Januarys FA Cup clash away at Millwall.

In January on making his first team debut, Nigel Adkins said of Lewis-Potter:

“He’s a young guy, diminutive in his figure, he’s got a bit of pace and an eye for goal. Let’s not put any pressure on him but let’s be excited that somewhere down the line it’s another player coming through the academy who’s got a bright future at the club”

Keane will join fellow Hull product Charlie Andrew at The Horsfall and is on a loan deal until the end of the season.

Of the signing today Bradford Park Avenue CEO Damian Irvine said :-

“We’re really pleased to have secured the services of Keane. We’ve been looking to add some attacking support since Macauley Langstaff completed his loan period and cannot speak highly enough of Hull City and their staff who have been exceptionally helpful”

Irvine Added :-

“We have plenty to offer as a club in terms of opportunities , and as with Charlie Andrew and Romaney Chrichlow Noble, Keane will be able to demonstrate his wares in a great environment competing at the top end of the league into the big games at the end of the season.”

Lewis-Potter will arrive at Horsfall and be available for Saturdays huge clash against Alfreton in the 3pm Kick Off. The club welcomes any Hull City supporters not making the trip to Ipswich Town and all Huddersfield Town Supporters not travelling to Crystal Palace to come along and support your young loanees up close to the action at family friendly Horsfall Stadium.

Bradford will be looking to bounce back on Saturday after an impressive run of 7 games unbeaten was brought to an end by an impressive Telford side on Tuesday night.

Speaking after the game, 1st team manager, Mark bower said:

“I thought it was a game of very few chances”

“We said at half time the first goal’s massive in the game and you hold your hands up, the lads produced a magnificent piece of quality to curl one in the top corner.”

“it’s a little bump in the road tonight, you’re going to get those along the way”

When asked for his thoughts on the teams performance over the season Mark added:

“They’ve done fantastic for us, I don’t think anyone would have had us down as being in this position at this stage in the season. we spent a fair amount of time at the top of the league, I think we deserve credit”

“We’ve put ourselves in this position and we have to make it count.

Avenue head into Saturday in a strong 5th place, 8 points clear of a pack of sides chasing a playoff spot.

With just 18 points left to play for, a win for Bower’s side will mean Avenue only need 9 points to mathematically guarantee a chance to play for promotion to the National League.

Mid table Alfreton travel to the Horsfall on an impressive run of form, having beaten league leaders, Chorley in mid February and picked up 9 points from 3 sides battling relegation before picking up a point against Spennymoor on their last outing.

Despite this run of form, the visitors only have the remotest mathematical chance of attaining a playoff spot and would need to win all of their remaining games and have a considerable number of results go in their favour to do so.

Read on to learn more about today’s visitors as well as other news from the club.

Mark Bower’s play-off chasing Bradford (Park Avenue) side will look to strengthen their grip on a play-off place when AFC Telford United make the trip up to West Yorkshire tomorrow night.

Telford currently occupy the final play-off place and should Bradford secure all three points there will be even more daylight between Avenue and the chasing pack who are currently looking to get into the top seven.

Saturday’s draw away at Southport ensured Bower and his team made it seven games unbeaten and on Tuesday they will be looking to extend that impressive run.

Telford have a game in hand on Avenue, and will do so after Tuesday night’s fixture, as well as having two games in hand on those directly below them.

In their last five games, Telford have two wins, two losses and a draw. They have conceded the same amount of goals this season, and have scored ten less.

Telford return to National League North action after a seventeen day break, with the FA Trophy proving a distraction from league affairs, as they valiantly lost a two-legged tie to National League high-flyers, Leyton Orient.

In the reverse fixture, Bradford won 2-0 courtesy of goals by Lewis Knight and Jamie Spencer, which kept Avenue at the top of the league at the time of the fixture.

Bradford (Park Avenue) are proud to announce the launch of a new match day commentary service.

As part of the clubs close working relationship with Bradford Bulls, live match commentary will be available on the Bradford Bulls Live Mixlr channel.

Heading up our new commentary feed is Mick Gledhill, an experienced broadcast journalist working for Pulse 2, Proper Sport and various other platforms. 

You can tune in to the commentary on match days by going to: http://mixlr.com/bradford-bulls-live or by downloading the Mixlr app and searching for Bradford Bulls Live.

And don’t forget to follow Mick on Twitter with his handle: @thegamecaller

Having drawn level on points with Tuesday’s hosts, 3rd placed Spennymoor Town, Bradford will be looking to close the gap on fellow title chasers this weekend as Bower’s men head to mid table Southport.

With 8 league games left to the end of the season, there’s a total of 24 points up for grabs, enough to propel Avenue into the top spot should other results go in their favour.

Southport will come into this weekends game hoping to return to winning ways following their 1-0 defeat to Leamington last weekend.

The Merseyside outfit sits in 14th place, 14 points ahead of the drop zone, and barring catastrophe, look to be comfortable with little to play for, currently needing only 11 points from 7 games to guarantee safety.

Following on from the recent extension of Conor Branson, Bradford (Park Avenue) have moved to bring in another young player who has followed a similar pathway through the American University System.

Midfielder Lewis Rathbone joined the club last week and is training with the squad whilst awaiting his international clearance from the FA. Rathbone who hails from Manchester and was a member of the Manchester City Academy as a youngster, enjoyed a successful scholar period with Concordia University of Nebraska where he captained the universities squad and was named a Scholar All American in 2017.

In 2018 supporters of The Nebraska Bugeaters who compete in the United Premier League, voted Rathbone the clubs most valuable player.

Bugeaters Chairman Jonathan Collura said of Rathbones addition to the squad:

“I am excited to see Lewis join Bradford.  His commitment and competitive attitude last season was evident both on and off of the pitch”

Rathbone follows the US University pathway to Horsfall that Conor Branson and also Lewis Knight have so successfully taken. In August of 2018 Knight was signed after a successful trial period having completed his studies at Marshall University in the States and committed his future to The Club in November by penning an extension until 2020

Bradford Park Avenue CEO Damian Irvine said of Rathbone’s arrival :

“Bradford has signed 3 ex-Pats out of the US university system this season.  We are finding that there is a lot of quality talent that is available and we are well placed to build on this as a conduit back to the English game”

Rathbone joins Bradford (Park Avenue) pending final FA approval.

Bradford (Park Avenue) have today extended the loan of Chris Dawson to Grantham Town.

Dawson was sent out on loan to regain match fitness and play significant match minutes at “The Gingerbreads” and has strung together some excellent performances over the past month. With a fully fit squad putting together an unbeaten run at Horsfall , Mark Bower has agreed to extend the loan deal with Grantham whilst including an emergency re-call clause.

News of Dawson’s extension comes as Bradford (Park Avenue) can also confirm that York City FC Loanee Macauley Langstaff has been recalled to his parent club at the end of his short loan spell at Horsfall.

Langstaff was a welcome addition over the past month and a credit to himself displaying great professionalism in a spell of strong performances. Mark Bower and the club were keen to retain the services of Langstaff for the remainder of the season however respect Yorks decision to re-call him. The club would like to thank Macauley for his attitude and commitment to “The Avenue” in his short loan period and also David Penney and the York City FC club.

Of the two loan decisions Mark Bower said

“Chris is getting good game time at Grantham which benefits all parties and we are now able to recall him when required “

Bower added

“We are disappointed not to be able to extend Macaulay’s loan but thank him for his efforts whilst with us and wish him well for the future.”

Bradford (Park Avenue) continue to pursue recruitment targets looking to add depth to the squad in their bid for a successful play off campaign.

Avenue play their re-arranged fixture away to Spennymoor this coming Tuesday March 19th and have two huge home fixtures  approaching as they welcome AFC Telford to Horsfall for Tuesday Night Football on March 26th and Alfreton Town on Saturday 30th just 4 days later. With a long spell between home fixtures the club is expecting good gates for both fixtures and are hopefully the local community will come out to support Mark and the team as a second play off battle in a row looms large for Bradford’s recently awarded” Team of the Year”

Our next, if, somewhat delayed trip up north is to face a very good Spennymoor Town side in what promises to be a crunch promotion clash as both sides look to flex their promotion-contending credentials.

Goals from Conor Branson and Jamie Spencer secured a third win in five games for Bradford, with Spennymoor missing a game week due to their postponement against Bradford’s Yorkshire rivals, Guiseley.

The last game Tuesday’s hosts did play was against Southport, where they secured a point after going one-nil down with a late penalty from the league’s top goalscorer, Glen Taylor.

Spennymoor’s season has been an impressive one. They boast the third best defence in the league, as well as being the league’s second highest goalscorers and are aiming to stay in touch with Chorley and Stockport County above them.

A win could see Bradford go as high as joint-third, but despite the points tally, Spennymoor’s goal difference will help them stay above Bower’s side whatever the result on Tuesday night.

The reverse fixture came early in the season during mid-August and saw Avenue come out on top. Ben McKenna’s 26th minute strike saw Bradford secure an impressive 1-0 win.