With football suspended for the foreseeable future, we’ve taken a look through the archives to see how the club matches up against the top brass of English football.

Today’s opponent is flying high at the top of the Premier League, so it’s no real surprise they’ve had the better of the encounters between the two sides.

Bradford (Park Avenue) Vs Liverpool

Stats sourced from 11v11.com – if you spot any inaccuracies please e-mail info@bpafc.com.

The National League held a Board discussion yesterday, which was the third such meeting in 11 days. The broad consensus was that our Clubs wish for a decision to be made to close the season as soon as possible.

The National League attended a further meeting last night (by video conference) with The Football Association, and The FA have been asked to assist us with making the decisions to officially postpone all remaining National League fixtures and to end the season as soon as possible for the purposes of player contracts.

The National League is also working with The FA to define all reasonable and practical options for the determination of the 2019/20 season, and to provide guidance to Clubs on dealing with player contracts, player registrations and the application of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. We will continue to press for updates and will ensure that any further information is relayed to Clubs as soon as it is received.

I hope everyone is keeping safe in these difficult times. This crisis will pass as have many others and meanwhile we work together to ease the pain and suffering that this virus is causing.

Firstly we plan to take care of our staff and players and we are working through the initiatives that the government has proposed so that they can be paid. Obviously like a lot of clubs around us we have lost revenue because of the cancelled matches.

Secondly there has been a tremendous effort behind the scenes to put together the new Horsfall Community Stadium project. Despite all the disruption from this virus we are still moving forward with our plans. It is still too soon to say that it is a done deal but we are very optimistic that it will get done. I would like to thank all of those who are working on this project for their enthusiasm and skill in getting it this close to the line. I include in that list our friends at West Bowling ARLFC, The Football Stadia Improvement Fund, the RFL, Sport England, Bradford Airedale Athletics Club and multiple levels of the Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

Finally with improved facilities at our disposal, it will soon be time to turn to how we improve our football club. We are going to develop our youth teams and our Academy teams so that we have more participants and the quality of our play increases. The goal is to produce a quality first team that we can enjoy. This will take a little time but if we can build a solid pyramid of excellence, then our first team is going to provide results.

Stay well, and look after each other.

Up the Avenue.

Gareth Roberts.

On Saturday 21st March I will be participating in a Sponsored Walk from Horsfall to Nethermoor, Guiseley. The distance is approximately 12 miles. This coincides with Bradford’s away fixture that day at Guiseley.

All funds raised will be split equally between the Bradford Park Avenue Development Fund and The Horsfall Community Trust.

Currently there are just three of us walking but we are hoping to raise in the region of £2000. If achieved, and I would be disappointed if it wasn’t, that would be £1000 each for the club and Trust.

If you would be prepared to sponsor me that would be much appreciated. Please note you can sponsor per mile or a fixed amount. The latter seems the most popular method. If you would like to sponsor me please see me a tomorrows game.

As far as the Trust is concerned raising funds is vital to ensure we maintain sufficient reserves to meet costs. Income from grants whilst welcome does not cover all our expenditure.

Regards

Keith

P.S. Incidentally if anyone would like to join the walk please let me know. You would be most welcome.