Bradford (Park Avenue) return to the road this weekend as they travel to Greater Manchester to take on Altrincham at Moss Lane.
After a very tough season, Avenue find themselves bottom of the table with only three wins on the season. However, one of those wins was against Altrincham just over a month ago in which Bradford ran out 2-0 winners over the Robins in what was an excellent performance. Goals from Tom Clare on his debut and Oli Johnson late on secured the three points for the Green Army and they will be hoping for a repeat of that this weekend.
Altrincham, meanwhile, are on a good run of form. Despite losing their last game away at Gateshead, their previous loss before that was against Avenue back on the 7th of December. Following that, they went on a seven game unbeaten league run, winning six. They sit tenth in the league table, albeit with a number of games in hand on the teams above, so their fate is in their own hands as we reach the last couple of months of the season.
For Avenue, it was another case of what-if last weekend against Brackley. In an evenly contested game at the Horsfall Stadium, it was unfortunately the away side who showed their quality when it mattered most, edging out a 2-1 win and sending Avenue further to the bottom of the table.
Manager Mark Bower has admitted that escaping relegation this season will be tough, and that it is irrelevant to focus on what other teams are doing, stating that “we’re just focusing on each match one-by-one”.
Focus will be paramount this weekend against one of the league’s inform sides, and three points are necessary if Avenue are to have any hopes of avoiding the drop this season.