Following incessant rain over the past few days and, in the light of the weather warnings issued today and tomorrow, the League sanctioned a Friday pitch inspection.
Following that pitch inspection by a local referee and bearing in mind the distance that our opponents Kettering will have to travel, an early decision has been made to call off tomorrow’s game.
Details of a re-arranged date will be released asap but the Kings Lynn game postponed last weekend has now been re-arranged for Tuesday 10th March 2020 KO 7.45pm
We are proud to announce that Bradford (Park Avenue) AFC will be hosting several Bradford Bulls, Reserves, under 18s and Scholarship fixtures at the Horsfall Stadium.
This will be a short-term period from February through till the end of April, when our exciting stadium redevelopment begins with the installation of our 3G pitch.
The first Bradford Bulls fixture is this Thursday 20th February Bradford Bulls v Castleford Tigers KO 8pm.
We hope to see as many supporters of both clubs come along and enjoy this fixture, moving forward with our partnership with West Bowling ARLFC we will see much more football/rugby league and athletics played at our new sports hub facilities in the not too distant future.
Prices:
Avenue and Bulls season ticket holders £2
Adults £5
Concessions £2
Juniors free (Under 16’s accompanied by an adult)
Gates will open at 6:30pm with bar and concessions available. Access to the stadium car park is via Cemetery Road. Parts of Cemetery Road and Park Road will be coned off for the convenience of local residents.
Liam Hughes has left Bradford (Park Avenue) for Frickley Athletic on dual registration.
Hughes, who has had spells at Cambridge United and Inverness in the past, made 20 appearances in all competitions for Bradford this term, netting on two occasions last time out against Gloucester City and at York City on New Year’s Day.
Due to the current weather conditions and the forecast for the rest of the day an early decision has been made to postpone todays game with Kings Lynn on safety grounds.
Once a date has been set for the rearranged fixture this will be announced on the website.
Bradford (Park Avenue) face a mountain of a task as they travel to Kings Lynn on Saturday afternoon to take on the runaway leaders in the National League North.
Despite only being a point above second place, Kings Lynn have three games in hand over their nearest rival and are looking like a certainty to be promoted to the National League.
Meanwhile, Bradford Park Avenue sit on the other end of the spectrum. After a heartbreaking 2-1 loss at home to Gloucester City last week, Avenue’s future in the division looks more and more bleak as they now sit 15 points back from Gloucester, who occupy the final spot of safety, and they will need to pull off what would be one of the biggest upsets of the season this weekend if they are to have any hope of avoiding the drop this season.
If past results are to go by though, then it shows that anything can happen in this league and that Bradford should remain confident as just last week the high flying table toppers were stunned 2-0 at home by Kidderminster, ending a run of 14 unbeaten league games.
If Avenue are to get anything from this game then they would be ending their own rot. It has now been 10 league games without a win for the Green Army, with only two points being picked up from a possible 30 in the process.
Despite the way the season has gone for both sides, Bradford manager Mark Bower remains confident that his side can grab a result at the Walks Stadium stating that while he knows that not many people will expect it, “we know we’re capable of getting a result (at Kings Lynn) if we do our jobs properly.”
VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH- MANAGER OF THE MONTH
Phil Parkinson (Altrincham)
If there’s one thing a manager can do to keep people happy it’s to make sure your regulars are looked after.
Altrincham have a home record many will envy – and the home fans haven’t seen a defeat since the opening day of the season. Throw that in with a January to remember and it’s a great time to be a Robins fan right now.
Last month started with a well-earned 2-1 win over tricky Curzon Ashton, and the side quickly followed that up with three points at Leamington. They then saw off Blyth Spartans before a good point against Guiseley. They couldn’t get the better of Gateshead but ended the month with two hardworking 2-0 wins against Bradford PA and Kettering Town.
They are playing the type of football ever fan craves as the boss they call Parky (right) continues to push the club on.
With 50 goals to their name already, you can’t rule out Altrincham this season.
VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH – PLAYER OF THE MONTH
Josh Hancock (Altrincham)
It was double January joy for Altrincham as they swept up with two awards.
Not only did Phil Parkinson take the top boss accolade, but his attacking midfielder grabbed glory after his goals as well.
Josh Hancock is the month’s top National League North performer thanks to four weeks to remember.
The Robins deadly finisher has been in fine form and found the back of the net in now fewer than five matches as he helped fire the club into the play-offs. He was prolific and hit the target against Curzon Ashton, Leamington, Blyth Spartans, Bradford PA and Kettering Town. But it’s not just his goals that have grabbed the fans’ attention this season.
Unfortunately, Josh was not available to receive his award at the time of announcement.
VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH- VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH
Glen Maddison and Dick Creasey (Boston United)
Glen Maddison and Dick Creasey have won Volunteer of the Month for Boston United in the National League North.
Glen and Dick have held a variety of roles at the club over the years, including managing the club’s reserve team.
They have established themselves as a vital part of the club’s matchday experience, now specialising in hospitality.
In their second season in the role, the duo have helped the Pilgrims develop the Club 85 offering which has seen hospitality numbers treble at times this season.
With manager Craig Elliott masterminding performances on the pitch, plus Glen and Dick providing a great service off it, there’s certainly an award-winning showing every fortnight at York Street!
Gloucester City eased their relegation fears with a huge 2-1 victory away at Bradford (Park Avenue) in a result which leaves Avenue resigned to their fate at the bottom of the National League North.
Despite Bradford dominating possession for the majority of the game, most of the clearcut chances fell the vistors way with Bradford unable to muster up many opportunities of their own. Defensive fragilities have been the downfall of Avenue this season and it reared its ugly head once more as the Avenue defence were unable to deal with a long ball played into their box, the ball then fell nicely to Mensah from a header and he volleyed into the bottom corner leaving Nicholson no chance.
Gloucester then had chances to double their lead. Again, more defensive mistakes from Avenue as a Hughes back pass was far too weak and allowed Jackson to race through on goal but his shot was well saved by Nicholson.
The hosts started putting more pressure on as the second half got underway but it was the visitors who grabbed the vital second goal from a free kick as Brunt curled the ball into the net from 20 yards out.
Bradford rescued a goal back through Hughes in the 67th minute, and had more chances to grab an unlikely equaliser, the best chance falling to Lewis Knight inside the box but his powerful effort struck the post and somehow fell into Maher’s hands.
The loss now means that Avenue sit at the bottom, a massive 15 points from safety with time unfortunately running out as just 12 games remain in the season.
Tonight I look forward to meeting many of you at our fans forum. I will be introducing Mark Leadbeater as our full-time Stadium Operations Manager, and Colin Wilson our Director of Development, who some if you might have noticed hanging around the club recently but he has actually been doing a great job of helping us secure a stadium worthy of playing great football. As I mentioned over the new year we are planning improvements to the stadium including a new surface and hospitality. We have been working with the West Bowling rugby league teams to have them base out of Horsfall as a major partner which will help everyone to support the cost of running the stadium and they are also applying for eligible grant funding to underwrite some of the improvements.
We shall know by 26 March whether the project will be definitely going ahead, and indications are good so far. If the project goes ahead we expect it to start work in early May and be finished by August. At this point we are very confident that it will and assuming that it will, then our priorities next year will be to increase our match day revenues and Increase the size of our Academy.
With a 3G pitch available during the day our Academy students are going to enjoy studying and playing at Horsfall. We hope to increase the size of the Academy over the next few years which will provide not only a great experience for them but will provide a source of young players that will knock on the door of the first team. Perhaps we will gain some new supporters alongside them.
I plan to attend the match tomorrow and usually the team loses when I do that!! But I think our luck is going to change and perhaps I can start to be a lucky charm when I do visit the Horsfall.
