Bradford (Park Avenue) return home to the Horsfall Stadium when they host Boston United this Saturday (4/01/20).
Avenue are coming off two straight away games at Farsley Celtic and York City while Boston United travel to Bradford after hosting two straight games against Kettering Town and Kings Lynn.
Despite a 5-0 loss to Farsley last week, the Avenue were much improved in their New Year’s Day game at York City, and despite the scoreline, were the better team for most spells of the match and manager Mark Bower hopes that they can carry on those types of performances, stating that playing the way that they did against York will get them a good result against “many of the teams in the league”.
Boston United, too, are coming off a tough loss from New Years Day after being dispatched 3-0 at home by top of the table Kings Lynn. United sit in 9th in the National League North table, just three points behind the playoff spots, albeit with a number of games in hand on the teams above so they will be travelling to Horsfall with the hopes of strengthening their cause for a playoff spot.
It’s a much different story for the Avenue though. After a rough offseason after finishing in the playoffs last season, Bradford, now five months into the season, find themselves bottom of the table by five points and ten points from safety with Bower insisting that although it will be difficult, he still has confidence in his players that they will be able to pull off what would be a miraculous escape.
The Avenue will be without Jon Royle, who has now returned to his parent club AFC Telford, after a brief spell on loan whilst Jake Hibbs could make his return to the Avenue squad after joining on loan from Spennymoor Town earlier this week.