5 Things: Bradford Park Avenue

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Saturday sees Bradford Park Avenue come to Aggborough to round off the regular National League North season.

Avenue still have a chance of making the play-offs – but may well need some kind of result to do so, and ensure they return to Worcestershire a few nights later to contest the rather brutally-titled Vanarama Eliminator tie.

Ahead of the game, we’ve picked a few facts for you to chew over as the men from the Horsfall Stadium prepare to journey to Aggborough. Here’s our ‘5 Things’ on Bradford Park Avenue:

GOOD FORM, GOOD TIME

The team are finding good form at the best possible time. After struggling for any real momentum during much of February and March, the team have soared to the top end of the form table and – as we speak – into the play-off places thanks to four successive wins. Home wins over Leamington and, impressively, Harrogate Town have coupled with victories at fellow play-off candidates and hopefuls Brackley and Boston to ensure they’ll at least have more than a passing interest in how the final league table shapes up.

OOOH, CUP FRIENDS!

Remember Vauxhall Motors? Harriers never had cause to cross swords with the Ellesmere Port team until the FA Cup and Trophy kept throwing them together. Well, the same could’ve been said of Bradford Park Avenue back in the day. The reds had never come up against Avenue until as recently as 2013. For a while, the two teams couldn’t get enough of each other as Cup competitions again paired them up. Replays in both the Cup and Trophy saw them clash four times between October 2013 and the following December, before the two began to square off more regularly in league action.

A BRADFORD CENTURION IN CHARGE

Avenue are managed by a former Bradford City player in Mark Bower. The 38-year-old, who came through the ranks at Valley Parade, made over 200 appearances for the Bantams between 1997 and 2009, while also turning out for York City and Darlington during a busy playing career. He moved into management with Guiseley, and took the Avenue job in September 2016.

ALWAYS AVENUE

Our visitors this coming weekend have always been known colloquially as ‘Avenue.’ In 1966, Bradford introduced a cartoon mascot in response to the City Gent of Bradford City at Valley Parade. Avenue ‘Arry is a cartoon of a supporter with hat and scarf, waving a rattle. Although officially Bradford Football Club, the club was obliged to append Park Avenue (the location of the club’s original stadium) in brackets to its name in 1907 to avoid confusion with Bradford City. However, the club was always referred to simply as Bradford in fixture lists, classified results and the national press.

A HARRIER, BRIEFLY…

The list of players to have donned the shirts of both Harriers and Bradford Park Avenue is hardly one you’d need a while to get through, but one name that sits on it is striker Adam Boyes. The 27-year-old has been fairly prolific in his non-league career having scored freely for the likes of Barrow and Guiseley among others. He joined Avenue last summer but did briefly spend time here at Aggborough. Signed by Steve Burr in 2010, he made just one league start in a spell on loan from York City; a goalless draw at Eastbourne in which he struck the bar.

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