Unofficial Bradford!

THE 22nd ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BRADFORD SUPPORTERS CLUB (ELLESMERE PORT BRANCH)

2010 was a summer of deep depression. Avenue had agonizingly failed to win promotion at the last hurdle, losing at home 2-1 to Boston United in the play-off final after extra time. The title had been ours to lose, but lose it we did thanks to a series of injuries to key defenders and dubious penalty decisions going against us, most notably against eventual champions Guiseley. The club was then rocked by the shock resignation of manager John Deacey, and the departure of most of the squad, after the board announced their intention to slash the weekly budget from £5,000 plus to around £3,000. John was immediately replaced by former Avenue midfielder Simon Collins who had only limited managerial experience at Stocksbridge Park Steels.

The World Cup in South Africa should have brought joy but instead it brought misery for English supporters. The misery was started by Robert Green whose blunder in Rustenburg gifted the Yanks an equaliser and cost England their group. I was so confident that England would win group C that I had bought a ticket for the England v Australia ODI on the day the runners up were due to play in the round of 16. I was thus at Old Trafford when tears turned to cheers in two glorious minutes as England fought back from 2-0 down to level against the Germans. But the cheers turned back to tears when it transpired that the incompetent officials had failed to see that Frank Lampard's "equalizer" was two feet over the line and disallowed the goal.

Avenue fans had a scare when it was revealed that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs were seeking a winding up order at the Companies Court in London for the non payment of taxes. Our board managed to settle the bill but still had to pay substantial legal costs for a hearing which probably lasted less than a minute. HMRC have a reputation for picking on the minnows while the big fish get away with millions in unpaid debts. No need to mention names.

My new season started as usual at the Racecourse in July watching local Welsh clubs in Europe. This time there was a shock victory for BangorCity who saw off Honka Espoo with two late goals. TNS also gave Anderlecht a very decent game.

The first pre-season friendly that I bothered with, there being far too many, was a visit to Brighouse. This coincided with Chester CAMRA's trip to hostelries along the Manchester Piccadilly – Leeds railway line. Thus the day started in the West Riding Refreshment Rooms at Dewsbury station, a favourite haunt from our days at Batley, followed by the Navigation at Mirfield. I then took my leave to do the Mirfield – Brighouse section, which has only recently acquired a full day service. This could have been problematical as there was no indication as to which platform the Brighouse train left from, but I guessed right. I then caught a bus to Hipperholme to enjoy the delights of the Halifax Steam brewery at the Cock of the North, before crossing several fields to find the ground. No programmes were on sale.

Our worst fears were realized as Avenue took the field. Only Martin Drury, James Knowles, Simon Baldry, Rob O'Brien and Luke Gibson remained from our promotion chasing squad and I can't remember if any of them played. Supporters were deeply depressed by the ordinariness of the players Simon Collins had signed. Most were fringe players who had failed to make an impact in previous spells with the club spanning many years. Only the return of former striker Tom Greaves was met with any enthusiasm. The club was hyping up David Heagney, a 19-year-old forward from St Johnstone, which was most unfair on the lad as he had little or no first team experience. A powder-puff performance ended in a humiliating 1-0 last minute defeat. Brighouse even had to lend us a substitute goalkeeper after ours got injured.

For some strange reason, our annual-ish fixture with Manningham was staged at Valley Parade and could not have come at a less opportune time. This was the worst Avenue side since the rump we were left with after our second successive relegation in 2006. We feared the worst but fortunately Manningham weren't all that clever either. After Tom Greaves missed an absolute sitter in the first minute, we did manage to match them for most of the game and our eventual 4-0 defeat was very harsh.

The Northern Premier League has a very curtailed season, starting later and finishing earlier than everybody else. This gave me the opportunity to cop the first Football League game at Stevenage which attracted a disappointing crowd of less than 4,000. It was there that I first came across that wretched Red Indian chant which would annoy me more and more as the season progressed. Fortunately it seems to be a southern thing. The expected scourge of vuvuzelas never materialized.

Avenue hosted a Leeds United XI and were flattered only to lose 3-1 after another lacklustre performance. A few days later HarrogateTown won 5-1 at Horsfall. The doom and gloom club, myself included, was already predicting relegation.

The season proper started in late August at Horsfall when newcomers Chasetown were the visitors. The pre-season jamboree had already taken its toll with midfield lynchpin Rob O'Brien picking up metatarsal injury which would keep him out for half the season. But Avenue stole all the points with a late Tom Greaves winner. I suspect our visitors showed us far too much respect.

Three days later, we paid our first visit to Northwich since 1974, the Vics being the latest club to be dumped into our league as punishment for some financial misdemeanour. With only two promotion spots available, it is iniquitous to have these big clubs imposed on us. They start as red-hot favourites but, on this occasion, the Vics were still in turmoil and fielded a team of youngsters. However they were still too good for the Avenue and the 2-1 score line did not reflect their superiority.

At Northwich, Avenue played in their new away kit of fluorescent yellow shirts, which had no connection whatsoever with the club's tradition or history. But it was our third choice pink shirt which raised the most eyebrows. Why do they let poncey designers design football kits? To be honest, I wasn't too impressed with our home strip either and I suspect the club shop had a poor year selling replica shirts. Why can't we have simple green and white stripes or hoops with white shorts at home and red, amber and black hoops with black shorts away? Is that too much to ask?

Bank Holiday weekend saw Avenue visit ColwynBay, who had been promoted via the play-offs despite finishing 21 points behind second placed Lancaster. ColwynBay were impressive but a header from a narrow angle from James Knowles and an excellent long range chip from Danny Facey saved us a point. It looked as if Avenue would not be struggling for goalkeepers this season with second choice stopper Steve Kerr playing a blinder in the absence of the impressive Ben Scott. This included a fantastic injury time save.

Titters were raised two minutes from time when an announcement was made for Maria Bruce to report to the club office in order to take Mr Morris's pigeon back to Halifax. I later found out from David that two sets of racing pigeons flying on different routes had come into contact and, being a flock animal, had decided to join forces and head off together for Wales. Hence the need for this errand of mercy.

Perennial strugglers OssettTown had made a decent start to the season but Avenue's confidence was still reasonably high. However we put in a dreadful performance and eventually lost 1-0 to Phil Sharpe's team of old ex-Avenue players, with the winner coming from Mark Bett.

The club was saddened by the untimely death of former captain Gary Kershaw who was only a young man in his forties. Former club president Charlie Atkinson, a great stalwart who played a record 339 times for the old club, also passed away.

WorksopTown were now in exile in Retford which afforded me the opportunity to take a most unusual train trip. This started with the Merseyrail Electrics service from Little Sutton to Ellesmere Port in order to pick up the parliamentary shuttle to Helsby, which only runs at the crack of dawn and in the late afternoon. Loadings were as usual very light. I then made my way via Newton-le-Willows to ManchesterVictoria and Bradford Interchange where I had an hour to kill. I could not believe how dead Bradford was at 9.30 am on a Saturday morning. Not a soul in sight as I wandered the streets and the so-called park which has replaced the city centre. Why can't our short-sighted council see that this is a wonderful opportunity to persuade Network Rail to link our two railway stations? Their lack of imagination beggars belief.

I then sampled the new Grand Central service from Bradford to Doncaster via Halifax, Wakefield Kirkgate and Pontefract. A wonderful train but disappointingly quiet. They need to speed up journey times me thinks.

Cannon Park is in an open field miles out of town, but can be reached from the train station by taking two buses, one a very infrequent service which I knew more about than the Worksop fans. Kevin Sanasy spoilt the day for his former club with a last minute penalty to grab Avenue a 3-3 draw.

FC United arrived at Horsfall in their usual numbers and their fans were soon gloating after ex-Avenue winger Chris Ovington gave them an early lead. But Avenue equalized shortly thereafter and a sensational hat-trick from Tom Greaves in the space of 13 minutes late in the game extended Avenue's unbeaten run against the rebels to nine matches.

The first qualifying round of the FA Cup saw Avenue drawn away to WestAucklandTown. This brought back happy memories of a 5-0 pre-season victory in 1969 when I was the only Avenue supporter there and got falsely accused of firing at their goalie with a pea shooter. Our hosts had clearly forgotten this game as the match programme speculated that this was our first visit. Avenue started well with Tom Greaves's glancing header giving us an early lead. A couple of minutes later Danny Facey powered through the middle and was brought down by home keeper Mark Bell as he was being rounded in the box. Unbelievably referee Keogh failed to give a red card, perhaps out of sympathy for the underdogs. Bell then made a good save from Sanasy's weak spot kick.

This was a game of two keepers. Steve Kerr's horrendous sliced clearance gifted the home side an equaliser and two minutes later he conceded a penalty by bringing down a home forward. Avenue were shell shocked and spineless and eventually went down 3-1.

The journey back was eventful, starting with a bus ride to Bishop Auckland followed by a train down to Darlington where we found the East Coast mainline at a standstill due to a fatality at Durham. With the station staff having no information about when the line might reopen, I took a punt and caught the local train to Thornaby to connect with the Middlesbrough - ManchesterAirport service. I could only get back as far as Chester and had to call out the missus.

A few hours later, I had to catch a plane to Belgium, forsaking the Eurostar in the hope of arriving in time to see Sporting Lokeren play Westerlo in the top division. Lokeren is a typical small town team playing on a two and a half sided ground. Ironically I had passed Bishop Auckland's new ground the previous day, Bishop having been kicked out of our league for having a ground with only two and a half sides. The game followed a similar pattern to our cup tie with the home side coming back from one down to win 3-1. There were no programmes as such, just a tiny number of team sheets and an undated magazine. A dispute about a penalty and red card late in the game caused a delay of several minutes which led me to miss two trains. It was almost midnight by the time I caught the last working to that funny woman from Belgium Ann Twerp. I couldn't believe how busy it was.

Avenue visited Chasetown on a Saturday in late September, but sadly the Chasewater Railway nearby was not running. I had to make do with the real ale pubs of Lichfield instead. Avenue had a weakened side out. James Knowles had dropped down two divisions to rejoin the reformed Farsley FC after an alleged bust up with Simon Collins and first choice keeper Ben Scott had left due to work problems. Their untried successors Jordan Yorath and Spencer Harris both had nightmares as the Staffordshire side romped to a 5-0 win. Club captain Martin Drury came on to the supporters coach after the game to apologize for the team's performance.

The club was by now in turmoil with disenchanted fans calling for Simon Collins's head. Little was expected at Stocksbridge so several excellent pints of real ale were consumed beforehand in the many splendid real ale pubs on the Sheffield – Middlewood tram route. There is a shuttle bus from the terminus straight to the ground. Against all expectations, Avenue won a dire match 1-0 with a penalty from new signing Steve Burton from Guiseley. Two days later, Avenue gave Ashton United a master class in possession football at Hurst Cross with defensive midfielder Adam Clayton bagging a brace. The pressure was off for a while. And last season's leading scorer Aiden Savory returned to the club.

 

Normally I have to book my summer holidays before the season starts. Little did I imagine that my October break would clash with our biggest derby for 40 years at the Shay. Everybody expected the Halifax games to be at Christmas and Easter. I was thus stuck on a boat somewhere near the Hellespont when we gallantly went down 1-0. To compound my misery, I had bought a ticket for Greece v Latvia on the internet before travelling, only to be told the next day that I couldn't have it as I wasn't a Greek or a Cypriot.

 

Before Halifax, Avenue had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with two very late goals against Marine. We had also lost 2-0 at a very early stage of the FA Trophy at ColwynBay – a competition which is so unfairly seeded that clubs at our level have no hope of reaching Wembley. A 4-1 stuffing at Kendal ensued, followed by an abysmal 3-2 defeat at home to Frickley. Avenue were going backwards again and our football was becoming awful to watch. The calls for Collins to go were becoming louder and louder and eventually Simon did the decent thing and fell on his sword. We are not sure whether he was pushed.

 

With speculation mounting as to who would take over, the appointment was speedy and surprising. John Deacey was back saying he had unfinished business to complete. Stephen Downes also rejoined the club for a short spell before emigrating to Australia. Confidence was thus reasonably high for our visit to lowly Retford who had lost their first eight home games. Avenue gave an improved performance but could only draw 0-0 after Steve Burton had failed from the spot. He ponced about with a short run, a bit like Ronaldo in Moscow, and Josh Mimms just stood his ground. Steve looked bewildered and blasted it over the bar.

 

I had to take a torch with me as it was going to be dark after the game and flashing it was the only way of making sure the driver of the one bus back would see me on the unlit road. I then caught one of the rare express trains on the Lincoln – Sheffield line, but still worked by an old DMU. Sheffield station now has an excellent Thornbridge pub on platform 1.

 

The West Riding (or "Late Postponement") Cup saw Avenue drawn at near neighbours Eccleshill United. The game was finally played after two postponements and Avenue won 3-1. But we were kicked out of the competition for playing Manningham loanee Chib Chilaka who was ineligible. The club was quick to own up to the WRFA, just in case they didn't notice.

 

Games at Buxton are always the same. The home side play us off the park but fail to put away their chances. Then the Avenue player you least expect grabs a late equalizer. This time it was Brice Tiani, another returnee from last year. Who can forget Ged Murphy's thunderbolt a couple of years back?

 

The season had by now ground to a halt and I didn't see a game at Horsfall from the end of October till the middle of January. A severe winter caused Avenue to suffer postponement after postponement, despite the gallant efforts of the groundsman and Kev and his small band of volunteers. Fortunately the club introduced a very welcome text messaging service to advise spectators when matches were off. But even these missives were sometimes too late to save wasted trips. The Halifax home game was not called off by the referee until I was in the Odsal top chip shop. So I had to rush down to Huddersfield to see a very one sided FA Cup tie against Macclesfield.

 

Come December, I was watching league football most weeks but Avenue did manage to fulfil a fixture at Burscough just before Christmas. This part of the world does get it slightly milder. Avenue looked very rusty and were soon two goals down. However the side improved as time progressed and snatched victory with two goals in the last few minutes to maintain our long unbeaten record at Mart Lane. Chib Chilaka scored the winner in his last game for the club.

 

As I was staying in Bradford over Christmas, I bought expensive tickets for Bramall Lane on Boxing Day and that place 10 miles to the east on Dec 28th, with Avenue's game with Mickleover scheduled for the 27th. I was thus somewhat worried when we put our game back to the 28th at short notice as a thaw was expected. Fortunately I didn't have to make an agonizing choice as the thaw came too late, and I enjoyed seeing Leeds throw away a 3-1 lead against Pompey. But somebody should tell the NPL that Christmas games are meant to be derbies and not matches against teams from Derby.

 

The Christmas period saw two major transfers. Captain Simon Baldry left for Guiseley while James Knowles returned to Horsfall after his short spell at Farsley.

Unusually I was still up north at New Year when Avenue were due to visit lowly OssettTown. Nobody expected the match to be played, least of all the home club. Thus the tea bars were closed which annoyed a lot of people as Ossett ban you from taking in your own food. And there was only a handful of programmes, but I knew from past experience that you have to arrive at Ingfield early. Once Avenue had taken an early lead and Town had missed a penalty, the unprepared home side simply capitulated. For the second time in a few months, Avenue hit six at Ossett, this time without reply. How could we have lost at home to such a hapless side? To crown a good day, Rob O'Brien returned from injury and made a cameo appearance from the bench.

 

Northwich were due at Horsfall on the bank holiday Monday and messages on the various forums confidently stated that the match was on. Then the match referee turns up at 1.45 and calls it off as one part of the pitch was frozen. Why can't these self-righteous officials have some consideration for the fans and get out of bed and turn up at a decent hour to inspect when a game is in doubt? Instead they swan in, collect their fee, and swan out again.

 

The lateness of the call left me with no alternative but to go to Manningham. Needless to say, I sat with the Bury supporters and was charged £20 for the "privilege". £20 for a ruddy fourth division game. Manningham's business plan is clear. Rip off visiting and occasional supporters in order to subsidise cheap season tickets for their own. I saw a few green and white shirts near me in the away section, but these were disillusioned Vics fans and not Avenue-ites.

 

Doubts about our visit to FC United forced me to drive so I would have other options if the game was called off. I thus missed out on my customary visit to the excellent bar on the East Lancs railway station. Avenue were short of fit defenders so returnee Matty James was forced into service at right back. He did an excellent job for 80 minutes by which time he was completely run off his feet. So Avenue brought on new signing Anthony Lloyd. Sadly Anthony had a nightmare 10 minutes. He was badly at fault on both occasions as the rebels scored twice to end their nine-match winless sequence against Park Avenue. He never played again.

 

Like most people, I couldn't be bothered with the "Floodlit Lager" league cup tie with Halifax on a cold January night. Fans who did attend were asking, only slightly jokingly, which team would play the ringer. In the end it was Halifax, so we had to stay in the competition despite being well beaten 3-0 on the night.

 

Avenue's long sequence of 77 days without a home game in the league, a club record, finally ended in mid January when ColwynBay made the journey over from North Wales. I remember when Bay used to play in exile at the old Ellesmere Port stadium rather than compete in the ill conceived League of Wales.

 

Such had been the litany of postponements that 14 of Avenue's remaining 21 games were at home. But it was a bad day at the office as Avenue defended abysmally allowing Bay to cruise to a 4-1 win. Avenue missed yet another penalty, Steve Burton the culprit. Tim Clapham reported that since the start of season 2009/10, Avenue had missed seven out of twenty penalties while our opponents had missed six out of twenty. 40 penalties in a season and a half is a hell of a lot. When I was a lad, you only saw two or three awarded per season. The referees of today are whistle mad.

 

The club bar at Horsfall is a welcome refuge in winter but I had never had a beer there as I refuse to drink keg. To its credit, the club did try to improve choice by offering "real ale in a bottle". While welcoming the initiative, the bottles they chose were not real ales, juts filtered imitations. I did try one but was unimpressed. Sadly bottled conditioned beers do take some searching out.

 

Unbelievably the home game with Halifax was rearranged for a Monday night in the middle of my winter holidays. I thus missed all three games against them, perhaps as well as I used to watch the Town in the 1980's when Avenue were in limbo. Champions elect Town won 3-1 with a few notes in the programme from yours sincerely about long forgotten prehistoric meetings between Bradford and Halifax. Under Tim Parker's editorship, the programme was a vast improvement on previous years (apart from the perverse habit of printing the scores back to front when we lose). Sadly the Halifax game was marred by a yob who attacked former Yorkshire and England star Geoff Cope, who is often seen at our games with vice president John Helm. This was a particularly despicable act as Geoff is nearly blind.

 

The following Saturday I forsook football to watch four chukkas of three-a-side ice polo, Chopin beating Castell by 6 goals to 4. Special buses were laid on, but there were no programmes.

 

An excellent 4-1 win at home to Buxton restored confidence at the start of February. Then Steve Burton rocked the club by following Stephen Downes to Australia. Can't think why – Aussie beer is awful. Northwich were gifted a 2-0 lead at Horsfall by some sloppy defending and it took a deflected Tom Greaves bicycle kick to get us level. We thus surrendered two points when we should have murdered them.

 

The trip to the North Ferriby away game started badly when my train was late and they didn't hold the connection at Brough. With well over an hour to wait and the risk of programmes running out or even missing the kick off, I spoke to the man in the ticket office about bus alternatives, but he was next to useless. Fortunately after some quick research and waddling half a mile, I picked up a late running 155. Avenue put in one of their best performances of the season to come back from 1-0 down, Gary Bradshaw as usual, to win 2-1 with well taken goals by Tom Greaves and Aiden Savory. As usual, I did the very sparsely served Goole – Leeds line after the game.

 

Every year, the club send me books of raffle tickets to sell at Christmas and Easter, as indeed do CAMRA, the Railway Development Society and a host of others. These are not the easiest things to sell in Ellesmere Port so I end up buying the lot myself. I had never won a thing in twenty-odd years till this year when I won the first and third prizes. Within seconds of the draw somebody was on the phone to the missus saying that I would be sponsoring a match ball, wouldn't I? I readily agreed. Park Avenue giveth and Park Avenue taketh away. This was to have been the Ferriby home game but had to be changed to Stocksbridge when this was postponed. I ended up doing the Stockport v Macclesfield derby instead.

 

Watching Stockport was a bit like watching Avenue in 1969. Lots of effort, a great goal, followed by some lousy defending and a 4-1 hammering. I remember watching a Stockport v Ipswich game in the real second division in 1998. There was an article in the programme going on about the bad old days in the fourth division when they use to visit places like Crewe and Wigan. I couldn't help but think at the time that this was somewhat presumptuous. Now, bled dry by Sale Sharks, they will be visiting Fleetwood and Braintree next season.

 

My hobnobbing day was interesting and, contrary to popular belief, the canapés didn't include prawn sandwiches. And me, the missus and Boring Stan Park Ave fan did make it out in time for the second half. The hardest part was nominating the Stocksbridge man of the match, they were so poor.

 

For once, we got to visit Whitby on a Saturday but sadly it was too early. Had the game been played two weeks later, I could have caught a North Yorks Moors steam train from Pickering through to Whitby. As it was, I elected to get the Coastliner bus from Malton station which turned out to be an Avenue supporters' special. Only two more years to my bus pass. Several good pints of Double Chance were downed at Suddaby's both coming and going, although this is now brewed at Brown Cow and not on the premises. Avenue won 2-1.

 

This was followed by home victories against the vastly improved Mickleover Sports and a dangerous Matlock side with goal machine Ross Hannah in the squad. He gave Town an early lead with an opportunist goal before going off injured. Ross has now signed for Manningham. Nine points in a week had suddenly given us an outside chance of a play-off place.

 

The missus had to take some holiday by the end of March. However as I hate paying rip off exchange rates for the wretched euro, which has a buying power of 70p but costs almost a quid to buy, we ended up on the Birkenhead – Belfast ferry. Countries like Greece and Ireland are been thrown to the wolves just so the French and Germans can go on an ego trip and flash their wealth around rather than devalue.

 

I had planned to do Coleraine (Rory's old club) v Crusaders and so booked a hotel in nearby Portrush. Then the game was called off and then it was put on again after Maik Taylor got injured playing for Birmingham. It could only happen in Ireland. The ground was similar to an old fashioned Scottish second division arena and the atmosphere was friendly despite the strict segregation. "Tea and biscuits" were served at half time. Crusaders won a good game 3-1 to qualify for Europe. The scenic Portrush – Coleraine – Derry line was griced a couple of days later. Meanwhile a 1-0 defeat at rivals Marine put a huge dent in Avenue's play-off hopes.

 

Luckily I had picked the week when Northern Ireland were playing Slovenia. So I caught the local train from Bangor, where we now were staying, to Adelaide, stopping off en route at the splendidly ornate Crown Liquor Saloon by Great Victoria Street station for some local Hilden ales. WindsorPark on a murky night is strangely atmospheric. I was in the old stand near the Slovenian fans, but luckily my seat was not behind one of the many pillars. Sadly the game was a rather predictable 0-0 draw.

 

My final game in Northern Ireland was the Glenavon – Dungannon Swifts derby which was rendered meaningless after both teams found themselves marooned in the bottom six in the late season league split. Having first visited the surprisingly well hidden Lough Neagh, I finally found the ground in a mean-looking suburb of Lurgan. There were no programmes and the snack bar was shut till almost kick off. But I managed to pick up a team sheet in the bar. MourneviewPark is a nice modern all-seater stadium with religious (but not sectarian) slogans painted behind the goal. Dungannon stole the game 2-1 with two late goals.

 

The next day, the crossing back to Birkenhead was so rough that I had to leave my most of my dinner, including the mushy peas. And your car is on an open deck on this particular ferry, so it was covered in salt by the time we got back to Merseyside.

 

April started with Avenue in tenth spot, five places below the play-offs with only seven games to go. But manager John Deacey had recruited well. James Riley and Matty Plummer were poached from Halifax where they couldn't get a game. They gave the defence some much needed solidarity, playing alongside James Knowles and my player of the season Martin Drury. And John Lamb came back to replace the excellent Mike Hale in goal and looked a more solid keeper than last year. Left winger Nicky Boshell from Brighouse also looked a good signing.

 

A big 5-2 win at home to Kendal and a 1-0 win at Matlock raised hopes, but Rob O'brien picked up another serious injury to end his season. I had great plans to do the reopening of Duffield – Idridgehay section of the EcclesbourneValley line en route to Causeway Lane but, for various reasons, I never got out of the house. I also missed our Floodlit Lager semi-final at Northwich where John Deacey decided the league was our priority and fielded a very weakened side. Avenue are more cynical than most.

 

After a short trip to Germany watching a dire game in the Hamburger Oberliga, I returned to Blighty to see Avenue win three home games in eight days without conceding a goal. A place in the play-offs was now assured.

 

Our regular season ended with a trip to Mickleover Sports on Easter Monday. The EcclesbourneValley extension was finally griced before the game, leaving just enough time to visit Mr Grundy's home brew pub in Derby. On arrival at the ground, I was delighted to find a handpulled Derby brewery beer in the clubhouse. Mickleover thus win the best clubhouse beer award whilst Lichfield/Chasetown wins the best drinking town as I'm fed up of giving it to Sheffield. South Elmsall as ever takes the wooden spoon.

 

John Deacey faced a selection dilemma at Mickleover. Should he field a strong side and try for a top three finish and a home semi final? Or should he rest players for the big game just three days later? He chose the former and Avenue edged a hard fought match 3-1 in the scorching heat. Several players picked up knocks.

 

As ever, the NPL playoffs were played in indecent haste. Avenue had earned a home tie, but had to play it on the Thursday or lose home advantage. Fortunately the Bradford Airedale Athletics Club very graciously gave up their home night. Avenue could have been a bit more grateful and rather less churlish about this than we seemed to be. FC United were the visitors but there was no prospect of arranging an all-ticket affair at such short notice. It was thus pay on the gate.

 

I arrived over an hour early to be sure of my place and avoid the queues. And Radio Leeds covered the entire match live on one of their quieter frequencies, which was a novelty. In the event, kick off was delayed due to the queues and a record crowd of over 2,700 squeezed into Horsfall. Despite my "doom and gloom" tendencies, I was quietly confident of promotion as Avenue were on a roll. But it started badly when some awful defending allowed FCUM to take an early lead.

 

Things went from bad to worse at the start of the second half when more bad defending gave our visitors a second goal. The officious referee then ended the game as a contest by giving James Riley a second yellow card for something he had said. Avenue then threw caution to the wind and missed two absolute sitters late on, but it was not to be. The FCUM players went mad and acted as if they had won the FA Cup as they posed and pranced in from of their delirious supporters. I knew then that they would not be in the right frame of mind for the final and so it proved. Second placed ColwynBay took the second promotion spot four days later.

 

The season went on for another month. There was lots of league football to watch and three of the big play-off games were in Manchester as Wembley had been commandeered by UEFA. I even had the misfortune, for the second time in four seasons, to be present when FCUM's first team clinched the first division title, this time at Blackburn. I also saw AFC Wimbledon get back into the fourth division by beating Luton on penalties, which is an absolutely ridiculous way to decide a Football League place. The play-offs are fine when there are several promotion spots to play for. However in pyramid football, a team can finish second with almost 100 points and still not go up. This year it was Skelmersdale's turn. It is most unfair.

 

All genuine football supporters are of course delighted that Wimbledon have got back into the league after having their team stolen from them by the Football League, the Football Association and Pete Winkelman. Having said that, they would never have been elected in place of Workington in 1977 had the members suspected they would one day move out of Plough Lane to ground share with Crystal Palace.

 

My season dragged on into June, finally ending at Wembley watching England struggle against Switzerland. Sadly Fabio Capello hasn't got much to pick from these days and the thirty years of hurt will soon be fifty. Come to think of it, Avenue have now been out of the league for 41 years.

 

Changes are afoot for next season. Our reserve team won its league under Mick Couzens but has now been disbanded. Our under 19's were disbanded before the season even started. They couldn't get back into their league, having failed to fulfil fixtures the season before.

 

Instead we are having to ground share with Albion Sports, who have been elected to the Northern Counties East League. I do not like this one little bit. We had an incredible twelve first team home matches postponed in 2010/11. The pitch simply cannot take any more punishment. We will also have to make way for any cup ties that Albion might play in FA competitions. It is fortunate for Avenue, in fact nigh on miraculous, that not a single one of our away NPL fixtures was called off.

 

It is being said that Albion will be a feeder club to Avenue, but I do not see this working. In all honesty, Avenue reserves was almost being run as a separate club. Indeed Mick went ballistic when John decided to field the entire first team against Thackley reserves. The first team then only drew 0-0.

 

So what of next season? At the time of writing, the club is wisely keeping stumm about new signings. Too many have slipped away in the past. Big spenders Chester will obviously be a threat while FCUM made a fortune from TV fees in last season's FA Cup run. I think we will be competitive but the title will probably be beyond us. We will need a good start to keep up the interest. Last season, crowds were low as we were never anywhere near the play offs until April. Somewhere in the top eight is my prediction.

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23rd ANNUAL REPORT of the BRADFORD SUPPORTERS CLUB  
(ELLESMERE PORT BRANCH)

2011 was yet another summer of deep depression. 
Avenue had once again been found wanting when it really mattered, losing 2-0 at home to archrivals FC United of Manchester in the semi-finals of the play-offs. And with high spenders Chester now in our division and no big money signings of our own, I felt that the play-offs were the best we could hope for in the new season. 
Opportunities to watch any sort of meaningful cricket in the interim were very limited thanks to central contracts, the abolition of the Gillette Cup and twenty-twenty rubbish. So I spent much of the summer building a website dedicated to the long-forgotten Bradford FC side that played at Park Avenue between 1895 and 1899. Tim Clapham meanwhile was writing a book about Avenue at War. I wonder if anybody will ever catalogue the results of the Avenue Sunday side? 
Avenue started the 2011/12 season with new co-tenants in Albion Sports. It was unclear whether the rationale behind this was (a) financial, (b) to use Albion as a feeder club, (c) pressure from the council or (d) some combination of (a), (b) and (c). Whatever the reason, supporters had major concerns as to whether the Horsfall pitch would hold up to the extra wear. The only mitigating factor was that Avenue had scrapped their reserve side. This had been highly successful, but was run almost as a separate club with little or no interchange of players with the first team. As such, it was a luxury we could ill afford. 

For various reasons, I couldn't build up any enthusiasm for the pre-season friendlies and so missed a 3-2 victory against Manningham's finest and a 2-1 win against Leeds's second string. And big wins against the likes of Tadcaster (6-2), Brighouse (4-1) and Bishop Auckland (4-1) gave increased grounds for optimism. Only a late capitulation against Droylsden, when we threw away a 3-0 lead, prevented a clean sweep. 
My first game of the season was a trip to Kingston-on-Thames to see AFC Wimbledon's first game back in the fourth division. I pumped into the Avenue fan known as "Stockport" outside the ground. Kingsmeadow was packed and it was difficult to see, even when you are my height. The game was an early kick-off which gave me a rare opportunity to go to the last day of the Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court afterwards. Sadly nearly all the beers had sold out, and the organizers were too busy congratulating themselves instead of worrying about the short changed punters. My local CAMRA branch would manage the beers far more carefully and never allow such a limited choice to be left on the last day. 

Avenue started their NPL campaign at home to Hednesford Town and soon fell a goal behind. The visitors then successfully shut up shop for next 87 minutes. 
The misery continued three days later at Whitby when Avenue found themselves a goal behind and down to 10 men after just 19 minutes. Why James Riley would consider it necessary to commit a professional foul on ex-Avenue striker Andy Campbell I do not know, but I was not there. However Avenue miraculously turned the game around in the second half and came away with a 4-1 win. 
Nantwich is only about 20 miles from where I live but requires four trains, so a cheap Arriva all-day bus ticket was used instead. After enjoying some very good beers, I saw Avenue continue where they left off at Whitby, rattling in three first half goals. 3-0 is how it finished. 
Two further home victories followed against Worksop (1-0) and Burscough (3-0) with left winger Nicky Boshell hitting a first-half hat-trick. If somebody had said that Nicky would go on to make 45 appearances but only score one more goal, nobody would have believed you. 

Avenue's bank holiday game at FCUM was switched to Curzon Ashton, providing the perfect excuse to change trains at Stalybridge and visit the wonderful station buffet en route. We needed a few beers before the game as this turned out to be an abomination. Avenue twice came back from behind to equalize, despite the loss of right back Matt Plummer and striker Aiden Savory to injury. But after conceding a penalty late in the game, we collapsed in the last few minutes letting in two further goals, one a long-range beauty. After the game, there was traffic chaos due to road works in connection with the Metrolink tram extension. The hourly 338 bus, which passes the ground, blobbed as a result and so I faced a horrific walk into the town down a dangerous half dug-up dual carriageway with no causeway. 
Avenue's newly signed goalkeeper James Coates was sacked after the game, which at the time I thought a tad harsh, and crowd favourite John Lamb returned. Our board has a zero tolerance policy vis-à-vis goalkeeping errors. 

When Avenue faced Chasetown five days later, we had five or six first team regulars missing, owing to injuries and suspensions, and only two fit players on the bench. Avenue would habitually name veteran assistant manager Mark Hume as one of the substitutes when we were short, instead of naming a substitute keeper. Clark Lydon turned up for the warm up for most matches but hardly ever got a look in. Bizarre. Our ill-discipline continued as we were reduced to ten men after 15 minutes when our hardworking midfielder Nathan Hotte was sent off by the over-officious referee. Annoyed by the officials, the sparse 338 crowd got behind the team like never before as the cheered on our talented youngsters. These included winger Michael Duckworth, Billy Law and our manager's son Jordan Deacey who were all just 17 or 18 years of age. A Rob O'Brien penalty helped ten-man Avenue to a well deserved 2-1 victory. 

The club was able to field a much stronger side four days later for its visit to Marine. The game had been in doubt due to floodlighting problems. After visiting the excellent Edinburgh pub next door which, at long, long last, now sells real ale, I saw Avenue give one of their best away performances of the season, totally controlling the game from midfield. Left back Martin Drury finished an excellent move in style to score a rare goal. Marine then had a man sent off before Aiden Savory sealed the points on a murky night in Merseyside. 

Our visit to Matlock afforded me the opportunity to "do" the recent Peak Rail extension into Matlock's national rail station. But sadly Peak Rail's aspirations to reopen the line all the way to Buxton seem as far away as ever. Causeway Lane is one of Avenue's lucky grounds where we are usually put under intense pressure but manage to come away with a result. This was the case yet again with a Nathan Hotte goal being enough to steal the three points. 
Avenue were now top of the league. 

Aiden Savory's solitary goal beat North Ferriby a couple of days later. 
Work is sending me to Germany on a regular basis these days, but I'm not having a great deal of luck taking in football matches. One of the most annoying things about German (and Spanish) football is the presence of reserve teams in the lower divisions. An enjoyable visit to the gloriously named Offenbach Kickers would have been even more enjoyable had the opposition been a proper team and not Stuttgart reserves. Offenbach of course is the name of the composer who wrote the can-can. Rather incongruously, the ground in a suburb called Bieber. The stadium resembled a building site with new stands springing up on all four sides. Needless to say, there were no Stuttgart reserves supporters there to see their side lose 2-0. 

Avenue's FA Cup adventure started with a home tie against Harrogate Railway and their supporters were soon on our forum telling us what they were going to do to us. 
John Deacey's side, however, had developed a rare ability to deal with lesser opposition, an ability which would serve us well as the season progressed. The Railwaymen were no match for a rampart Bradford side which bagged eight unanswered goals with Tom Greaves and Aiden Savory grabbing hat tricks. 
The result was not a club record in the FA Cup - our second team beat Denby Dale 11-0 in October 1908 on the same day as the first team were losing 2-0 to Grimsby Town in the second division. 

In recent seasons, football's powers that be have started relegating big clubs in financial difficulties to lower leagues like the NPL. Clubs like Boston United, Halifax Town and Chester have often hogged the few promotion spots, making it very difficult for smaller clubs like us to complete. Northwich Victoria are another such club and were soon among the pacesetters. 
The Vics visited Horsfall in late September for a real six-pointer. Sadly we were undone by two excellent goals and went down 2-1 after Rob O'Brien missed a penalty. Avenue did not respond well to the disappointment, going two goals down at lowly Stocksbridge before pulling it back to 2-2. 

Some silliness then ensued with the Horsfall clubhouse as the licensing authorities clamped down on membership cards. We must have of the few clubhouses which advertises itself as the perfect venue for funerals. 
For busier games, the club started selling bottles of "real ale" from a table beside the bar. While a vast improvement on Tetley's Smooth, most of these beers were not bottled conditioned as so were not technically real. On the other hand the chips in the tea-bar next door were generally superb - and it is always a pleasure to visit Bradford's fish shops where they still fry in beef dripping and sell haddock instead of cod. Incidentally Avenue once had an Andy Haddock and a Trevor Codd. 

In the next round of the FA Cup, NPL-1 side Warrington Town gave us a scare by taking the lead at Horsfall. But a brace from Richard Marshall and a third from Billy Law eventually saw us through. 
I then went off to the USA for a long train-spotting trip and I managed to get a ticket to see the New York Giants on the NFL ticket exchange. The Giants and the Jets play at a new stadium built in the wastelands of New Jersey and it took me four trains to get there. Many supporters arrive by rail with a dozen or more special workings running down the branch to Meadowlands station on match days. Unbelievably the New Yorkers have built a brand new stadium with no cover at all for spectators. These are teams playing a winter sport in an area with a very cold climate. On this occasion however, it was scorching hot and I really needed my cricket hat. The presence of a Mario Manningham in the Giants team endeared me to the opposition, the Seattle Seahawks, who snatched victory with a 97-yard interception try with 90 seconds to go, when they had looked on the verge of conceding on their own line. Unusually the game featured every kind of score like safeties ("own tries") and two point conversions. Voluminous programmes were on sale but much of the material looked like it didn't change very much from match to match and not many people bought them. 
A day later I was in Washington and went to see the Capitals ice hockey team beat Tampa Bay Lightning on penalties (after extra time), even though it was a league game. Still the visitors still got a point for the 5-5 draw. Tampa Bay seems a very strange place to have an ice hockey team. The free team sheets were very poor. 
The missus wouldn't let me go to any more games and I was thus deprived of the chance of seeing struggling Chivas USA in the NSL, who ground share with Los Angeles Galaxy. 

While I was away, Avenue crashed 4-0 at lowly Mickleover Sports, a truly dreadful performance by all accounts. But this was followed by a shock 1-0 win away to runaway Conference North leaders Hyde in the FA Cup, with Tom Greaves scoring in the last minute. Avenue entered the FA Trophy a week later at the last 512 stage, like all NPL-P clubs, a ludicrously unfair seeding policy which gives clubs at our level virtually no chance of ever reaching Wembley. 
After a home draw with Worksop, we crashed out 4-1 away thus reducing the risk of fixture congestion. As far as I can recall, Avenue have only won about two games in this completion in the last 10 years. 
The fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup saw Avenue drawn away to old rivals Kidsgrove Athletic, now in NPL Divsion One South. This gave the side an excellent chance of progression to the First Round proper for only the second time since the club was reformed. But this was also a massive game for our hosts and a four figure crowd duly assembled at Clough Hall. This was preceded by an interesting walk from the station down the canal towpath to the excellent Blue Bell. Avenue controlled the game well and finally prevailed with a fine header and a superb overhead kick from Whitby returnee Jimmy Beadle. 
Arguably this was already the best cup run in the club's history. 
Since Bradford first entered the FA Cup in 1897, the 1895, 1907 and 1987 incarnations of the club had only won through four rounds on two previous occasions. In season 1908/09, the club progressed through the first four qualifying rounds before going down to Croydon Common in the fifth. However we were helped by a walk-over in the third round when Heckmondwike withdrew from the competition so, in fact, we only won three games. And then in season 1995/96, Avenue started two weeks earlier in the preliminary round and fought their way to the 4th qualifying round where we lost 2-0 at Marine. 

Hopes were high when the draw for the first round proper was made on ITV. We were named as one of the clubs to watch out for and there seemed every chance of a lucrative TV appearance if the balls were kind. However the draw could not have been worse. We were sent to Southern League high flyers AFC Totton, a club based just outside Southampton. But a more immediate attraction was the Wednesday night visit of promotion rivals Chester FC to Horsfall. 
A slightly disappointing crowd of 604 saw Richard Marshall give Avenue the lead just before half time. Chester equalised with a good long range shot but this was eclipsed by a superb last minute winner from new signing Adnan Ahmed, who curled the ball beautifully into the top corner. This wins my "goal of the season" award. I know a lot of Chester supporters and enjoyed the bragging rights for many months afterwards. 

The Totton cup tie made me really glad I had just qualified for my Senior Citizen's Railcard, otherwise the trip would have been prohibitively expensive. Totton station was closed on the day for engineering works so the onward journey from Southampton had to be made by bus. The ground has very little cover and I could see from outside that the small stand was filling up by 1 pm. So I had no choice but to go in and warn others, via the walkie-talkie, to get there soon as the gates could be locked. In the event they weren't. Avenue, playing in their dreadful Crystal Palace away kit, started well but were left gobsmacked after just 10 minutes. 
The fussy southern referee sent off Richard Marshall for weakly pushing over the home centre half as he tried to get up after a tackle from behind. Definitely not a red card up north, but arguably Richard committed two yellow card offences. We were soon a goal down and the referee then gave Totton a very dubious penalty. Adam Clayton scrambled a goal back put poor defending let Totton go to the other end and add a third. I feared the worst. As so many times before, the Avenue defence went AWOL in the second half as we chased the game. Even Amjad Iqbal looked out of sorts. 
At 5-1, Martin Drury got sent off for mouthing and a last minute goal made the final score 8-1, the first time that any Avenue side had let in eight since the prehistoric days of late 1890's. 
Our FA Cup run wasn't meant to end like this. We were supposed to draw a third or fourth division side, lose two or three nil, and be applauded off the park. Instead it ended in disgrace and humiliation. 
Supporters immediately rushed to YouTube to see clips of Golden Gordon Ottershaw, supporter of fictional Barnstoneworth United of the Yorkshire Premier League. Gordon (aka Michael Palin) famously came home after yet another defeat, demolished his front room and shouted "Eight-one . eight bloody one . eight-one! To Brighouse! They're a team of old-aged pensioners. 
The centre forward wears glasses . during the match! Eight goals . four of them from back passes to the goalkeeper. Oh . they were the worst .Oh, oh .". His wife then gives him the clock on the mantelpiece to smash through the window. 

Three days later just 76 diehards turned up at Stocksbridge to see Avenue win a league cup tie on penalties, a rare event indeed. Stocksbridge is of course where the Bob Blackburn era began and, for two or three years we were perceived as the Manchester City of the NPL. Big name signings like Rory Patterson and Damien Reeves were brought in to try and buy success. But with only one automatic promotion place to play for, progress up the leagues has not been as rapid as we might have hoped. 
While we still rely to a huge extent on the largesse of Bob, John Dean, Kevin Hainsworth and the rest of the board, the big name signings are now a thing of the past, and manager John Deacey has had to wheel and deal a little bit more and bring in talented youngsters from local clubs. The club has also gone back to its roots in the sense that it could not run without a lot of unpaid effort from a number of hardworking volunteers. Tim Parker does an excellent job with the programme, even if he does drive me mad by breaking convention and publishing away results back to front. Dave Stordy does a great job in the club shop as does Dave Rawlings with the legends draw. Maria works her socks off as do the raffle ticket sellers, turnstile operators, stewards, kitmen, etc. 

Whichever league Avenue play in, we always seem to come up against Ashton United. Our visit to Hurst Cross provided yet another opportunity to sample the delights of Stalybridge station buffet and then travel up to the game on the 408. This is usually a lucky ground for us and when Aiden Savory squeezed home the only goal of the game in the 88th minute, everything seemed hunky dory. But our joy turned to sorrow as Amjad Iqbal had to be carried off with a horrific injury in the last minute. Ammers had only been back with us for a month after recovering from an earlier injury and this brought his season to a premature end. 

Our misery continued two days later when the tables were turned and Marine grabbed a late winner at Horsfall. Avenue visited Chasetown in late November determined to avenge our 5-0 thrashing last season. Avenue made the perfect start to the game. Unmarked Rob O'Brien headed home a Michael Duckworth cross in the first minute. Then home centre half Richard Teesdale was sent off for bringing down Matty James and Rob O'Brien netted from the spot via the post. Avenue cruised to a 4-0 win. 

Supporters travelling from Yorkshire could avail themselves of an exciting diversion of Leeds - Birmingham trains via Lichfield City where they made an extra stop. But this delayed local trains meaning I had to take a taxi to Lichfield Trent Valley to catch my connection back to the north west. 

A couple of days later, I happened to be in Cambridge so indulged in some schadenfreude and went to watch Cambridge United back where they belong in non-league football. Bottom of the league Bath City held them to a 1-1 draw and I left confident that the home side would not make the play-offs. I was right. 

Adnan Ahmed was a Pakistani international who we had signed from Iranian club FC Aboomoslem, having previously played for Huddersfield, Tranmere and Ferencváros. Adnan was called away to play in the 9th SAFF cup in the huge Jawaharlal Lal Nehru Stadium in Delhi. Match coverage was found on the internet and there we saw Pakistan eke out three draws in five days against Bangladesh (0-0), the Maldives (0-0) and Nepal (1-1). The crowds were very, very poor. Sadly three points were not enough to see Pakistan through to the semi-finals and so Adnan faced a trip to Frickley instead. But he was never seen in an Avenue shirt again, in fact he only made four appearances for the club, three of those from the bench. Avenue had to come from 2-0 behind to draw at home to Matlock but just managed to hold on to a 2-1 win at Frickley after the home side had scored a few minutes from time. 
And Gary Bradshaw yet again did for Avenue at North Ferriby, scoring both goals as we lost 2-1. Ferriby post excellent videos of their matches on their website. Normally the league try and arrange derbies at Christmas and Easter, so it came as a bit of a surprise to find our boxing day fixture was Rushall Olympic away. 

As I was staying in Bradford, and as there were no trains and very few buses, I took a rare trip on the team coach. I was reliably informed that some buses were running in the Walsall area including the 997 which passes the ground. This is probably the highest numbered bus ever to service an Avenue game. The game was a very tight and dour 0-0 draw. 

The fixture list was kinder to Avenue for the New Year bank holiday when FC United were the visitors to Horsfall. The visitors, as ever, brought lots of away fans and the game went ahead thanks to the usual sterling efforts of Kev and his volunteers with their pitchforks. This fortunately was a fairly dry winter compared with previous years. Throughout the season, Kev and Maria provided a great service to regular supporters by sending us text messages telling us whether games were on or off. This was much appreciated by those of us who live some distance from Bradford. Avenue started well and for thirty minutes made FCUM look like a load of clueless clodhoppers, particularly their back four. It was no surprise when returnee Curtis Bernard gave us the lead. Then out of nowhere they scored two quite excellent goals after which, as usual, our defence went to pieces. The all-important third goal was a shambles as little Norton was allowed to muscle his way past two or three defenders who should have done better. The fourth was an uncharacteristic mistake by our keeper. The fifth was another shambles from the right wing immediately after we took our left back off. A late consolation goal consigned us to our second 5-2 defeat of the season against FCUM. 

Morale was low for the visit to freezing Hednesford but, with James Knowles back from injury, the defence improved and we came away with a good 1-1 draw. The train trip required a change at Rugeley Trent Valley, a desolate station in the middle of nowhere with one redeeming grace. It is adjacent to the Yorkshireman, one of the best outlets for beers from the Blythe microbrewery. The highlight of the return journey was arrival at the rarely used platform 2 at Crewe, which is a long walk from any of the others. I now only need the even rarer platform 8 for the full set. This was followed a day later by a depressing trip to the Manchester derby, tickets for this FA Cup tie being surprisingly easy to get. Desperate to see a game on a visit to Hamburg a couple of days later, I forked out a goodly sum of money to catch the train to Bremen to see Werder reserves, in fact their under 23's, face SV Wehen of Wiesbaden in the third division. SVW's Stadion an der Berlinerstraße was the first German ground I ever did in 1976. Werder II's Platz 11 ground is a tiny little place in the car park in the shadow of the main Weserstadion and, on a murky night, the game attracted just 397 spectators, a complete and utter joke. The game ended 1-1 after SVW were gifted the lead by a goalkeeping howler and the home side had a penalty saved. The free programme covered a number of games including some women's matches. 

Our reward for our victory at Stocksbridge in the League Cup was a home tie with little known midlanders Loughborough Dymano. Only 91 hard core fans bothered to turn up. Avenue fielded a strange line up but still coasted to a 4-0 win after a poor first half. Mark Hume actually came off the bench for once and even scored a goal. This turned out to be striker Aiden Savory's last game for the club. It is believed he went to seek his fortune in Australia like James Knowles and Stephen Downes before him. This left the side very short of strikers. Three weeks later the crowd was down to 73 for the visit of Armthorpe in the County Cup. Horsfall is not the most attractive of places on Monday nights in January. In the meantime, Avenue's form in the league began to improve with a 3-1 win at home to Nantwich. This was followed by a visit to Worksop, who were now back in their home town at Sandy Lane. Facing dangerous opposition, James Knowles kicked everything that moved in the first half and was lucky to stay on the pitch, escaping with a final warning. Meanwhile Matty James gave Avenue the lead with a close range header. Knowlesy showed a lot of discipline in the second half as he steered the side to victory, which was cemented by an excellent 18-yard effort from substitute Nicky Matthews. 
Avenue then faced yet another visit to Staffordshire, this time to the county town, but the match was postponed due to a frozen pitch. This was Avenue's first away postponement in the NPL since the floodlight failure at Nantwich almost a year and a half earlier. This ended a long unbroken sequence of over a dozen postponements which were all at home. Is this sequence worthy of a place in the record books perhaps? 
Struggling Mickleover and Whitby were dispatched at Horsfall before Avenue faced the trip to Kendal. I booked a ticket to the end of the line at Windermere, but was unable to ride down the branch as TransPennine Express refused to hold their train at Oxenholme for four minutes so people could connect from the late running CrossCountry service. I thus had to catch a bus into Kendal and almost missed that as the right stop was hidden behind a minibus for the blind. As it turned out, I was in luck as I had to change my drinking plans and so ended up revisiting Burgundy's wine bar in search of the new Kendal's brewery beers. 
As they weren't on, I enquired where their other outlet was - and was told it was in the other pub downstairs. In the olden days, we used to enjoy going to Netherfield to see the sheep. But in recent years these have been driven away by new housing development. So it was a delight to see three of the beauties on the adjacent hill early in the game. 

Over the course of the season, John Deacey signed a good number of players in an attempt to strengthen the team. Most of these, however, were unable to break into the side and left after a couple of appearances. Curtis Bernard, Adnan Ahmed, Mark Hudson, Jimmy Beadle, David McNiven and Dempsey Smith all spring to mind. But one success was tricky left winger Alex Davidson who was signed from North Ferriby, who had knocked us out of the league cup at the quarter final stage. Alex gave Avenue the lead against the run of play at Kendal but we were pegged back by a late penalty when a free kick was hammered into the wall and hit James Knowles' hand. 
The game finished late, so I had to catch the bus back to Oxenholme instead of rushing back to Kendal station to get the 1720 or thereabouts. 

Avenue reached the West Riding Cup final by beating Conference North side Harrogate Town 3-1 away after extra time, ex-City and Avenue player Chib Chilaka scoring for the home side from the spot. Avenue had now given away five penalties in their last three away games, four of which had been scored. Harrogate had kindly agreed to switch this match from Tuesday to Wednesday so a couple of Avenue players could use up part of their suspensions by missing a low profile match. 

The final against Guiseley was fixed for the last week of the season at Manningham, despite protestations from both clubs that this could interfere with their play-off preparations. The WRFA are not known for helping their local clubs. 

  Avenue faced a decent Stafford side twice in two weeks. Despite giving away free online tickets for the home leg, only 532 spectators turned up. Those who stayed away missed an excellent Avenue performance with Richard Marshall netting a brace in a 3-1 win. 

The trip to Stafford a week later started with disappointment as the Pie & Ale House in the town centre had just gone bust. But Joxer Bradys nearby was an excellent and totally unspoilt second stop, even if it did only sell the Marstons beer range. After taking a very circuitous bus route to get to the ground, I soon realized that Stafford were going to be a different proposition on their own patch. Their players were a lot bigger than ours, in fact it was like boys against men.

Stafford took the lead at the start of the second half and the Avenue defence yet again capitulated, letting in two more in the next quarter of an hour. A scrambled goal by Matty James in the 86th minute might have been interesting had Jordan Deacey not missed a penalty a minute later. Jordan is a very talented youngster who took a lot of very unfair stick from certain sections of our crowd just because he is the manager's son.

Living in Ellesmere Port, one of the highlights of the season was always going to be our visit to Chester. Before the game, Chester's many real ale pubs were awash with Avenue supporters. I was worried some might ban football shirts but this did not turn out to be the case. The Deva stadium is in an industrial estate down a dead-end road miles out of town, so far in fact that the away end is in Wales. As I know the Chester chairman, we are in the same CAMRA branch, I was also treated to some good beer from Chester Ales in their clubhouse before the game. The match was preceded by a moving tribute to the late Trevor Storton who was Chester's longest serving player and the new Avenue's longest serving manager. Among the guests was Derek Draper who had done wonders for Chester but very little for Avenue, apart from a last minute wonder goal when we were 6-1 down at York. The Storton family came across to applaud the Avenue fans, which was touching. Avenue held out for half an hour or so, then fell into their usual habits.

Once Chester took the lead, two further goals followed in the next eight minutes. The second half was a quieter affair and, somewhat against the run of play, Avenue pulled two goals back. But it was too little, too late. I met up with some Chester fans in the Brewery Tap after the game and several more excellent pints were consumed. Chester wins my "Best drinking town" award. I won't give Frickley its annual award for the worst, as I did have a decent pint in the Barnsley Oak. Avenue recovered well from the Chester set back which had cost us any lingering hopes of automatic promotion and the title.

Ashton United were brushed aside 4-0 with embarrassing ease.

I then listened to commentary of the Kendal home game on Bradford Community Radio's website. I clearly missed a classic as Avenue fought back from 1-0 down to win 4-1. I had to drive to Buxton via the notorious Cat & Fiddle road and then wait for ages in the comfy chairs of the Buckingham Hotel for Ramsay's bar to open late. I waited for so long, I had to rush my pint down in 5 minutes flat before my parking ticket expired. I then went to do the miniature railway in the park. The train was in the station but there was no driver and no passengers. So I went off for a butty and then in the distance saw the driver return and put the train in the shed. He told me there had been no call that day.

Silverlands is not a lucky ground for Avenue so I feared the worst. The game looked like it had all the makings of a 0-0 draw until Tom Greaves unleashed a superb long distance shot into the top corner after 20 minutes. Two minutes later, Richard Marshall scrambled a second. Buxton troubled our defence and pulled one back, but an excellently worked goal by Ross Daly in the last minute sealed the points.

Avenue faced two critical matches against promotion rivals Chorley in the month of April. The first was at Horsfall where the green and whites put in a solid performance and triumphed 1-0, thanks to a well-taken penalty by Richard Marshall.

The following Saturday, the club visited bottom of the table Burscough, now back at their Victoria Park home after spending most of the season in exile at Skelmersdale. I travelled the long way round to BurscoughBridge via Kirkby and Wigan Wallgate instead of the short route to Burscough Junction via Ormskirk. Burscough Junction is adjacent to the ground and the Hop Vine, the home of the excellent Burscough microbrewery.

Hopes were high as Burscough had only won one home game all season and Avenue had never lost at Victoria Park in 14 visits. In front of a sparse crowd, the home side took an early lead with a well-worked goal, but this was cancelled out by an Adam Clayton header. Avenue should then have taken the lead from the penalty spot, but Richard Marshall fell for an old trick perfected by IpswichTown's former keeper Paul Cooper.

Paul used to stand a little off centre, nearer to one goal post than the other. This would tempt the penalty taker to aim for the wide open side. But it was a double bluff. Most strikers thought Cooper would dive that way and so hit the ball towards the narrow side. But Cooper would second guess them and dive that way and would have an easy save as he didn't have that far to jump. That's what the Burscough keeper did.

Two days later, on a rainy Easter Monday, a weakened Avenue were stunned by Rushall Olympic who grabbed two headed goals in two first-half minutes and then defended in depth. Our promotion push was coming off the rails. The West Riding cup final at Manningham was an unwelcome distraction for both Avenue and Guiseley.

A surprisingly large crowd of 1,222 turned up with our opponents bringing an unusually large following for them, perhaps on the electric train to Forster Square. They also fielded their strongest eleven while John Deacey was taking no chances with injuries. Avenue shaded the first half but were relieved to scramble a ball off the line after a defensive howler. Guiseley might have had a goal had there been goal line technology. But Avenue tired in the second half and were beaten when old boy Simon Baldry headed the winner in injury time. With critical games ahead, both teams would have been glad that the game did not go to extra time and penalties.

The NPL play-off race was thrown into turmoil a couple of days later when it was announced that second placed Northwich Victoria would not be allowed to participate. Chester had all but sewn up the league some time previously. The Vics did not own the Victoria Stadium, which was in the hands of administrators who rented it to the club while they built up the funds to buy it back. However when a neighbouring chemical company put in a surprise bid, the administrators were legally obliged to sell, and the side found itself homeless. Home matches, including games in the latter stages of the FA Trophy, were played at grounds such as Nantwich, Macclesfield and Leek.

Midway through a key top-six game at Leek, the NPL announced that they had found Northwich guilty of financial irregularities and that the club would be thrown out of the NPL. But they had leave to appeal. As the appeal would not be heard until the week of the play-off semi-finals, these would be delayed until the following Saturday. By dispatching struggling Frickley 3-0 with abject ease, Avenue made sure of a play-off place, but there were no celebrations.

We then visited the Vics at Nantwich, not knowing what to expect. We found a highly motivated side, who beat us 1-0 with a header from an excellent diagonal cross. The score flattered us. If their appeal succeeded, Northwich would be a side to fear in the play-offs. The season proper ended with a visit to Chorley. The winners were guaranteed third place and a home semi-final.

The journey involved a change of trains at Leyland, a town with a forgotten place in Avenue's history. Leyland DAF-SGL FC resigned from the first division of the North West Counties League in 1991, which allowed Avenue to gain an unexpected promotion having finished in third in the second division.

 Several excellent pints were enjoyed in Chorley before the game, a fine drinking town. But we were gobsmacked when the home side took an early lead with a quite superb goal. From a long through ball down the middle, Adam Roscoe produced a stunning bicycle kick on the edge of the box and the ball rocketed into the net. Probably the best goal I have ever seen Avenue concede, certainly in recent years. After weathering a first-half blitz, Richard Marshall equalized just after half time with a well placed shot from the edge of the box. But we conceded shortly afterwards when a defensive mistake gave Roscoe the chance to rifle in another long-range rocket. A last minute breakaway completed our misery.

Avenue had finished fourth behind Chester, Northwich and Chorley and ahead of Hednesford and FC United. This meant we would face Chorley away or Hednesford at home depending on Northwich's appeal. After two years of play-off failures, and last match heartache at Bury the year before, optimism was not particularly high. Avenue's young side had arguably over-achieved and had taken a few tonkings along the way.

However the FA gave the club a boost when it rejected Northwich's appeal. The appeal also gave teams time to prepare for the all-important play-offs, instead of holding these in indecent haste in midweek, just a couple of days after the season's end.

Hednesford brought a reasonable following to Horsfall, most well behaved but a few not. The early stages of the game were very even before Avenue were lifted by the award of disputed penalty which Richard Marshall tucked away. Our luck continued as the visitors hit the post and then the side netting. Adam Clayton headed home a corner and then John Lamb superbly saved a Pitmen penalty on the stroke of half time. It was all going Avenue's way. The game was effectively sealed on 64 minutes when long-serving full back Martin Drury dribbled the ball from the halfway line past several defenders before slotting it into the bottom corner. Soon afterwards the visitors were reduced to ten men. Two further goals from Knowles and Marshall put the game out of sight. With sixth-placed FC United winning the other semi-final at Chorley,

Avenue had home advantage again in the final, a rare piece of good fortune for a side finishing fourth. And with a week to prepare, and remembering last season, the authorities had time to insist on an all-ticket game with no sales on the day of the match. The club, Maria Bruce and Kevin Hainsworth in particular, looked after long-distance supporters very well and allowed pre-ordered tickets to be collected on the gate.

Sadly some people abused this service by failing to show up. With the crowd restricted to a maximum of 2,000, and tickets shared equally between the two clubs, Avenue supporters were not going to be hugely outnumbered and this made the atmosphere less intimidating for our young players.

But in a surreal scene captured on YouTube, a lone piper in a red shirt and black kilt slow-marched a small group of FCUM supporters through North Bierley cemetery and into the ground. That was class.

Avenue started the game well with Alex Davidson causing havoc down the wing, but he soon had to leave the field due to injury. The game then became more even with half chances at both ends and occasional flare ups between the nervous players. Avenue dominated possession in the second half but couldn't make their advantage tell. We tired a little in extra time but saved the best till last. With just over a minute to go, substitute Tom Greaves poked home a low Adam Clayton cross to send the home crowd delirious. It was only fitting that Tom should score the winner. He was the last survivor from our single ill-fated 2004/05 season in Conference North.

The FC United fans, to their eternal credit, took the disappointment of defeat extremely well, applauding the Avenue contingent as they left. I don't think we would have been as sporting. And we don't do success all that well either. The final celebrations were rather muted. In fact I went on to the pitch for the presentation a couple of minutes after the final whistle only to discover that I had missed it. I normally end most seasons by going to big Premier and Football League games, doing a bit of glory hunting. This season I didn't, nor did I get to Crawley or the new Brighton ground at Falmer. So my membership of the 92 club has temporarily lapsed.

Promotion had finally been achieved and in many ways it had been last-chance saloon. Rumours had been abounding that various players and officials would be leaving if we didn't make it this time. We may have been back to square one had we stayed down. Having gained promotion to Conference North, the biggest challenge now is to stay there.

There are two aspects to this. We have to finish outside the bottom three and we have to make a whole raft of stadium improvements by next March to meet ground grading requirements. These apparently include a new stand on the park side (or behind the goal), improvements to the floodlights, and possibly also to the fencing. These will cost a lot of money and need planning permission, so timing will be critical. The local authority was not happy with our portacabins when it renewed their temporary permission earlier in the year.

The club has some difficult decisions to make as our lease does not allow Conference National football, even if the ground could be got up to standard. The other fear of course is relegation on the field. If people start coming out with clichés like "There is not much difference between the two leagues" then we will be in trouble.

There is a huge difference in the standard of football. This season the old cliché "There are no easy games in this league - anybody can beat anybody on the day" was proved to be absolute nonsense. All five of our home defeats came against teams in the top eight. And at Horsfall, we beat 13 of the bottom 14, only Matlock (14th) managing to salvage a draw. Away from home, the pattern was pretty similar. We only lost two matches to sides outside the top 9 - at Stafford (16th) and Mickleover (21st). The league table doesn't lie.

The team has many young players which augurs well for the future. There are no overpaid prima donna's. The winner of all three player-of-the-year awards was Nathan Hotte, a tireless worker in midfield. However the squad does need strengthening if we are to survive and some interesting names have been mentioned as possible additions. We will have to wait and see.

Last season, Solihull Moors needed 49 points from 42 games to avoid the drop from Conference North. So I predict a season of consolidation in the bottom half of the table, looking rather worryingly over our shoulders. Let's hope it is consolidation and not panic. After six successive top seven finishes, the club and its supporters have probably forgotten how to cope with struggle. Do things right and we can stay up. The "Doom and Gloom" club has spoken  

EPISODE 24

The 2011/12 season finally ended in joy for Park Avenue as arch-rivals FC United of Manchester were put to the sword when Tom Greaves snatched the only goal of the game in the 118th minute of the play-off final at Horsfall. But my mind was on other things and the cricket season passed me by without seeing a single day's play.

 

As per usual, my season started watching Wales's minnows pit their wits against Scandinavia's finest in the qualifying rounds of the Europa and Champions Leagues. And they don't come much smaller than beaten Welsh Cup finalists Cefn Druids from the Cymru Alliance, the second tier of non-league football in the principality. Their glamour tie against MyPa 47 from the Finnish industrial village of Myllykoski was switched to the Racecourse and the Druids came away with a very creditable 0-0 draw. Sadly the men from Cefn Mawr were beaten 5-0 in the return leg which was played in Lahti.

 

Incredibly Welsh double winners The New Saints were exempted from the first qualifying round of the Champions League and so faced a much sterner test in Helsingborgs IF, winners of the Swedish treble in 2011. TNS play at a strange little two-sided ground at Park Hall in rural Shropshire, with an artificial pitch and all sorts of parking problems. The hoards of Swedish fans could not believe where they were, but were soon in good voice singing "You're not really Welsh, you're not really Welsh, you're ******* English, you're not really Welsh". TNS then proceeded to give the lofty Scandinavians a footballing lesson and it was only thanks to the woodwork that the Swedes came away with an undeserved 0-0 draw.

 

In the meantime, Avenue were embarking upon an arduous series of a dozen or so pre-season friendlies. Highlights were a 3-1 victory over our old Football league rivals from Manningham and a 3-3 draw against Doncaster Rovers, having led 3-1 until the final minutes. However the club failed to keep a clean sheet in any of those games, not even in a 12-1 stroll at Selby Town or a 6-2 win at little Bardsey.

 

Like most people, I was distracted by the Olympics but was only able to get tickets for the football and handball. Thus I headed for Old Trafford for a double header, starting with the United Arab Emirates U23 vs. Uruguay U23 with a rather unpopular scouser in their ranks. I was enjoying this game until the last few minutes when those who were only interested in the later Great Britain U23 game started to pile in and yap and spoil everybody else's enjoyment and view. Britain of course was obliged to field a combined team marketed under a pukey Americanized name and were held 1-1 by Senegal U23s. This was two days before the excellent Olympic opening ceremony, spoiled only by Paul McCartney, Britain's pukiest singer.

 

The handball tickets gave me a chance to visit the Olympic park, a stone's throw from Brisbane Road where I used to watch my football in the late 1970's when Avenue were in their 14-year hibernation. The railways and London Transport did admirably with all Olympic ticket holders being given free tickets valid on all public transport across London. I thus sampled the Javelin service using HS1 from St Pancras to Stratford International. I ended up in the Copper Box watching Argentina play handball in their traditional light blue and white stripes, note the irony, while just outside Great Britain was enjoying its greatest ever day, Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis and all. The Argies were well beaten 29-13 by the Swedes and I then saw Croatia beat Denmark 32-21 in a much better game. Croatia's Igor Vori was my "Man of the Olympics".

 

I was back at Old Trafford a week later to see Brazil, Neymar and all, see off South Korea in the semi-final before heading to Wembley for the final. The capital itself was almost deserted, as I had predicted, with all the usual summer tourists being frightened off by the rip-off reputation of London's hoteliers. Outsiders Mexico stunned Brazil by scoring in the first minute then added a second 15 minutes from time. Brazil's only response was an injury time consolation goal.

 

The programmes for the Olympic football were very poor. Only two issues were sold – one for Great Britain's games and one for the rest. There were no special issues for the semi-finals or final. Yet Avenue manage to do programmes for every game, including pre-season friendlies, and this season's issues were so crammed with information that you needed a magnifying glass to read the small print. The programmes for other Olympic sports were even worse. There was just a £15 programme for the whole games and then a daily issue. So when you went to an event, you had no printed list of who was talking apart.

 

The summer threads on the two online forums for Avenue fans were very predictable. Dennis and a couple of cohorts were demanding a return to red, amber and black while others, like me, were saying this would be a marketing disaster as green and white was now the very distinctive Avenue brand. However there is no doubt that red, amber and black have a big part in our history and certainly should be used for our away kit instead of the horrible pink or yellow shirts we used the previous year. So I agreed to fork out £50 sponsorship to help the club pay for shirts to be made in our old colours which were not available off the shelf.

 

However I was gob smacked when the club announced that these colours would actually be used for our new home strip. This in fact was to feature a Germanic white shirt with an effete red, amber and black diagonal sash. I suppose it was partly my fault for drawing the club's attention to the 150th anniversary of the formation of the original Bradford FC in 1863 via my website. Fortunately the club did say that the change would be for one season only, which is as well as 2013/14 is the silver jubilee of the reformed club which has always played in green and white.

 

I looked forward to Avenue's return to Conference North with a degree of trepidation. After playing against the likes of Mickleover Sports, Rushall Olympic and Frickley Athletic, the thought of playing teams such as Chester, Halifax, Boston United and Altrincham on a regular basis made me wonder whether we were up to it. However the protracted chase and successful signing of WorksopTown's star forward Jamie Jackson made supporters think that the club was serious. But it would be Paul Walker, an unsung winger from GarforthTown, who would prove to be the signing of the summer. But on the down side, talented young midfielder Ross Daly would miss the first half of the season recovering from a hip operation.

 

Still recovering from the anaesthetic after a minor knee operation, I had to listen to the opening game against WorcesterCity on the Bradford Community Broadcasting web cast. After being outplayed for much of the game, two late strikes from Richard Marshall, the second a long range belter, would earn Avenue their first point. Three days later, I made the short two-mile drive to Vauxhall Motors to see Avenue totally outclass my local Cheshire side and come away with a 3-1 win.

 

Avenue faced two big local derbies over the Bank Holiday weekend. Armed with my Senior Citizens Railcard, I travelled to Harrogate the pretty way via York and had a couple of good beers in the Blues Bar, a twee little beer café below Betty's Tea Rooms. Town took the lead in the heavy rain with a deflected goal before Richard Marshall equalized with another long-range effort. It would become a habit. Avenue held out in the second half for a point while Town would come to rue the day. Their pitch never recovered from the punishment it took and they had so many games called off later in the season that they had to switch home fixtures to places like York and Doncaster.

 

Two days later, Avenue faced the reformed FC Halifax Town at Horsfall in front of a crowd 1,614. I followed the Shay men through some very grim seasons after moving back north in the 1980's, so had mixed feelings about this fixture. A 1-1 draw meant honours were even. Later than night, I was quizzed about the game by Radio 5's Adrian Goldberg on the wife's mobile after I had phoned in about a meteor I had seen flashing across the M56.

 

Avenue's trip to Corby gave me a chance to redo the Kettering to Corby line which had reopened in 1987 under the Speller amendment, but closed again in 1990 and passenger trains did not reappear until 2009. With Corby being a bit of a beer desert, pre-match drinks were enjoyed in Kettering after which a taxi was required from Corby station owing to the appalling bus service to the ground. This was miles out of town, like many in the midlands and the south.

 

Corby were bottom of the league and clueless, so much so that Avenue were 5-1 up shortly after half time. But we had lost our manager's son Jordan Deacey, who was taken ill, and defenders James Riley and Adam Clayton who went off injured. Fortunately for us, Jordan had returned to Avenue after a pre-season trial with Burnley. Centre half Amjad Iqbal came on as a substitute after a long injury lay off, but looked short of match fitness and never played again. Corby's forward line found an unexpected fizz late in the game in the summer sun and pulled the score back to 5-4 in injury time. They then had a strong shout for a penalty turned down. Sadly Adam Clayton's injury turned out to be so serious that he missed half the season, seriously weakening our defence.

 

A taxi got us back to the station in time to catch the 1712 and I then had to run like the clappers across the footbridge at Kettering to make a 1-minute connection for Leicester (or was it Derby?). This meant charging down the stairs like a bull in a china shop, scattering the people who had just got off the train I was trying to get on. East Midlands trains are, in my experience, Britain's most passenger unfriendly train operator.

 

I then headed off to Malaysia on a works trip with a couple of days holiday tagged on. I managed to find out that a Malaysian Cup group game was taking place one night in Selayang, which is 20 miles or so outside Kuala Lumpur in the large urban sprawl. But getting there and back was going to be difficult. Eventually I did a deal with a private taxi company who took me there, organized my ticket and picked me up afterwards (but worried me by being late). I didn't expect the home team ATM (Angkatan Tentera Malaysia), aka Armed Forces, to have much support, likening them to Dukla Prague, Dinamo Berlin or Honved. But there was a noisy crowd of 2,000-3,000, many in replica shirts. The boys all stood at the back, and the girls at the front all wearing white headscarves, a truly wonderful sight. Premier League ATM gave their Super league rivals Kedah FA a real fright taking a deserved 2-0 lead, before throwing it away by conceding two late goals. A good night out. But Avenue suffered three straight defeats while I was away to Stalybridge and Brackley at home and Lee Sinnott's Altrincham away.

 

Promotion to Conference North meant Avenue were exempted to the second qualifying round of the FA Cup where we enjoyed a comfortable 3-1 at Curzon Ashton. Another kind draw took Bradford to CarltonTown, a small club on the outskirts of Nottingham, accessed by a suburban railway station with a fairly modest service, a one mile walk from the ground. I failed to recognize a friend from the olden days on the platform as he was disguised by a beard and baseball cap. Another easy 3-1 win ensued.

 

In the meantime Boston United had been to Horsfall giving Avenue the opportunity to avenge their heartbreaking 2010 play-off final defeat. Avenue had their revenge thanks to a last minute penalty save by keeper Tim Deasey who had replaced John Lamb, who had retired. As an aside, trying to remember results when writing this article was unnecessarily difficult as our programme editor insists on publishing our scores the wrong way round when we lose. It would be a lot simpler if he followed convention and put Avenue's score first.

 

Having already booked a late summer holiday in Devon, I was very miffed to find that our big away game at Chester, very near where I live, was rescheduled for the Wednesday I was away. After an early Danny Holland opener, Avenue put up a splendid rearguard defence until finally conceding two minutes from time. Our long sequence without a clean sheet thus continued. Meanwhile I had to make do with Torquay United vs. Accrington Stanley.

 

Avenue had another slice of luck when the FA Cup fourth qualifying round draw gave the side a home tie against local minnows Ossett Albion. Albion took a shock lead thanks to a header from young centre forward Tom Corner, but Bradford fought back to win 4-1.

 

A midweek trip to ColwynBay ensued. Avenue outplayed their hosts but took 70 minutes for Matty James to break the deadlock. A Paul Walker second followed but a Welsh response meant a tense finish. The evening was then spoilt a little listening to commentary on the wireless of Manningham beating Wigan reserves on penalties in the League Cup. Things were to get worse as the season progressed.

 

The FA Cup first round saw Avenue drawn away to third Division champions elect Doncaster Rovers, a much kinder draw than the previous season when we were humiliated 8-1 at AFC Totton from Southampton. Doncaster were unusual opponents in the sense that we had very good links with that club and even had one of their young players Liam Wakefield on loan. This took away some of the edge. Avenue took about 500 supporters to the strangely named Keepmoat Stadium. The reduced prices swelled the crowd to 4,602 but there were still thousands of empty seats in the home areas so the atmosphere was fairly subdued.

 

Doncaster passed the ball about quite nicely but never looked likely to overrun the Avenue defence. Nevertheless they took their half chances to take a 2-0 lead. However Avenue fought back magnificently in the second half and a superb Richard Marshall shot from the edge of the box reduced the arrears and sparked wild celebrations. An equalizer looked possible until a late home goal settled the game. An injury to keeper Tim Deasey gave a rare opportunity to reserve keeper Ben Higginson. John Deacey seldom puts a keeper on the bench, but seven substitutes can be named in the Premier and Football leagues and the "proper" rounds of the FA Cup. Is it any wonder that England cannot produce international players any more when so many talented youngsters spend their Saturdays wasting their time sat on benches watching foreigners play when they should be on the pitch playing for smaller clubs? After the game, I returned to Doncaster station on a double-deck football special. When was the last time that special buses were laid on for an Avenue game I wonder?

 

Avenue have an abysmal record in the FA Trophy having only won a couple of games in the last 10 years. Conference North status meant we were exempted to the third qualifying round, that is the last 128, so there was now some incentive to try and take the thing seriously. But the side was muscled out of the game at NPL Premier side Stafford Rangers and lost 3-1. The only consolation was the pub crawl before and after the game.

 

Solihull Moors were formed when Solihull Borough and Moor Green amalgamated in 2007 after a fire at the latter's ground followed by a period of ground sharing. Solihull's ground is miles out of town, half way to Birmingham airport. And annoyingly, one of the two bus routes that passes nearby doesn't stop. The game had a festive atmosphere despite only 252 people being present. The Avenue forward line played well but the defence had a nightmare and the side fell 2-0 down. Tom Greaves pulled one back with seven minutes to go but then, in injury time, keeper Tim Deasey had a moment of madness and came charging upfield for a corner. Moors broke away and walked in an easy third goal.

 

Solihull Borough were, of course, our opponents when Neil Redfearn played his 1000th game in a long, long career. Neil became temporary manager at Leeds for the second time later in the season.

 

Sometimes football clubs in financial trouble simply give up the ghost and decide to field teams of youngsters rather than pay a competitive side. Hinckley United were one such team, and were propping up the league. The few points that they did win were taken away for administrative offences. So it was no surprise when Danny Holland scored for Avenue in the first minute and the side coasted to a 4-0 win. After a dozen or so pre-season friendlies and 20 league and cup games, this was Avenue's first rather hollow clean sheet.

 

I always look forward to trips to Workington to grice the Cumberland coast line but, on this occasion, timings meant this had to be done from the Carlisle end in both directions. Workington itself is a beer desert with hardly any real ale except in Wetherspoons. So I ended up having eat-in fish and chips at the local chippy as it was freezing. The Reds were well on top in the first half and Avenue were lucky to come in at 1-1 at the interval thanks to a Jordan Deacey goal. But I don't know what the manager said at half time but it worked wonders. Avenue simply tore Workington apart after the break and ended up astonishing 6-1 winners. The best was yet another long-range cracker from Richard Marshall, this time a volley and my goal of the season. Unfortunately I didn't have a great view as I was walking round the other end to make sure I got the train home at 1715 or thereabouts, otherwise I would be faced with a two hour wait.

 

I made another train trip a week later, this time to Histon near Cambridge. This meant I had to travel via London to use the non-stop service from King's Cross. There is something not quite right about travelling via London to a Conference North fixture, but regional imbalance is unavoidable when two of the three feeder leagues to Conference North and South are southern based.

 

Cambridgeshire County Council are regarded in a similar light to Richard Beeching by public transport enthusiasts. There was a perfectly good railway line from Cambridge to St Ives which was ripe for reopening to help alleviate the chronic traffic problems in the city. But misguided zealots on the council insisted on wasting millions by turning it into a guided bus way. This starts a couple of miles out of town so the buses have to come off the bus way and then fight their way through the traffic to get to the town centre. It is mad and I didn't enjoy having to ride it to the old Histon & Impington station near the ground.

 

Histon is a very, very twee and upmarket suburb with two or three excellent pubs and a very good football ground with cover all the way around. However they had a big centre half who looked a million miles off match fit. His slowness was a major factor in Avenue taking a 3-0 lead in the first 18 minutes. Young Michael Duckworth, our player of the season, got the second when a very long range shot took a lucky deflection. The centre half was taken off and Histon improved, but not enough to prevent a 4-1 Avenue win in the autumn sun.

 

After a blank weekend, Avenue made their last visit to the doomed St George's Lane ground in Worcester. The game was in doubt until the last minute with the Avenue coach breaking down en route to add to the uncertainty. Good connections meant I had time to get off at Stourbridge Junction and ride on the class 139 Parry People Mover down the very short branch to StourbridgeTown. That was as good as it got.

 

The game was ruined by the referee Mr Simon Bennett from Staffordshire who sent off Jordan Deacey for two minor yellow card offences in two minutes. His sheer delight in brandishing the red card reminded me of Parking Pataweyo and his black and white cat. I later discovered that he was the linesman who had pleased me at GoodisonPark a few weeks earlier by disallowing Luis Suarez's last minute winner. Suarez should never have been on the pitch at the time.

 

Two days later, John Deacey would come to rue his policy of not having a keeper on the bench. Avenue were well on top against Gainsborough until Tim Deasey suffered a serious injury and had to leave the field. Our best defender James Knowles took over between the sticks which was a bad choice. Not only did our defence fall apart, but James was badly at fault with both goals which any regular keeper would have saved. The game ended in turmoil with Tom Greaves being brought on as a substitute and then dragged off five minutes later for not playing as instructed. The Avenue favourite was soon on his way to FC United, the club whose hearts he had broken just six months earlier.

 

Avenue now faced a daunting run of fixtures against all the top teams with half a dozen key players either injured or suspended.

 

John Lamb was persuaded to come out of retirement for our big Boxing Day derby at Guiseley but, unsurprisingly, did not look match fit. We lost by a solitary goal, thus maintaining our awful record against our bogey team. Avenue then lost 2-0 at Stalybridge but I missed the station buffet as I didn't travel expect the game to happen due to the torrential rain. I needed to have a car to travel elsewhere if the game was off.

 

By the time Guiseley came to Horsfall on New Year's Day, Avenue could barely raise a team and had to draft in youngsters like Jordan Snodin and new signing Tom Corner from Ossett Albion. Needless to say Guiseley won 3-1. The decision to let players like James Riley leave earlier in the season was looking very short sighted.

 

The weather did not come to Avenue's aid and a week later we hosted runway league leaders Chester, expecting a heavy defeat. But with a couple of players back, including Adam Clayton, Avenue made a good fist of it and came away with an excellent 1-1 draw thanks to a Danny Holland goal on the stroke of half time and an excellent penalty save by a rejuvenated John Lamb. Only one other team had taken points off Chester so to gain two draws against them was an excellent performance.

 

The trip to Brackley could have been more complicated than most, but the bus service from Banbury was surprisingly frequent and a good use of my OAP bus pass. After a bright start, Avenue found themselves on the back foot against the league's surprise package. The pressure told in the second half and we tumbled to a 3-1 defeat in the freezing cold.

 

The winter had thus far been kind and clubs had done an excellent job in getting fixtures on. But that all changed in January as Avenue went three weeks without a game. This was lucky for me as the break clashed with my annual skiing trip. Solihull were dispatched 1-0 in early February before Avenue made the trip to Cheltenham Town's Whaddon Road ground to face ground sharing Gloucester City. Before the game I had to explain the delights of Morris dancing to Bob Blackburn on Cheltenham High Street. The Morris dancing turned out to be more entertaining than the game. For some reason Gloucester wanted it more than us and a 1-0 defeat actually flattered Avenue.

 

Avenue completed the double over Vauxhall Motors giving me bragging rights in Ellesmere Port as well as Chester. We then faced CorbyTown who turned out in the most girly pink shirts and socks imaginable. I assumed this might be for a breast cancer charity but it was not. I have a theory that when you put out a football team in an embarrassing kit they will play badly – and this turned out to be the case. We won 2-1.

 

Avenue sadly were now being overshadowed by our neighbours from Manningham who had somehow managed to reach the League Cup final at Wembley. The media lazily started referring to Manningham as Bradford, as much to the annoyance of older City supporters as to us. Daily Mail columnist Martin Samuel added fuel to the flames with an article which showed a complete ignorance of Bradford football history.

 

Only SwanseaCity stood between Manningham and glory, so I became an adopted Welshman for the month. I watched the game in a real ale pub in Chester where I seemed to be the only one interested. Fortunately the Swans gave City a footballing lesson. However with Manningham down to 10 men and 4-0 down, Spanish forward Michu disgracefully told their players that they would just keep the ball and not go for more goals "out of respect". I call it match fixing and very unfair on the punters who had bet on 8 or 9 nil.

 

One of the highlights of the season was our trip to Droylsden, which occurred a couple of weeks after the opening of new Manchester – Droylsden tram line. This will eventually extend to Ashton-under-Lyne. Fortunately the trams were quite quiet as ManchesterCity were not at home, the only disappointment being the fact that I could use neither my Cheshire bus pass nor my national railcard. On arrival in Droylsden on a warm sunny day, I sat outside the chippy eating my Holland's steak pudding, chips, peas and gravy watching the trams running into the head shunt and then reversing. This was followed by a pint of Holts in the pub next to the ground. Magic.

 

Droylsden sadly were another team who had given up the ghost and Avenue were 5-0 up by half time. We then took the foot off the pedal before adding a couple more in the last ten minutes. You had to feel for Dave Pace.

 

The weather in March turned out to be terrible, the worst of the winter. After beating Workington 1-0 on the first Monday night, Horsfall was covered in deep snow and out of use for a month. But the side managed to fit in a good 1-1 draw at Gainsborough.

 

 

Avenue struggled to get out of Bradford for their away game at Boston, one of the very few to survive. The supporters coach was cancelled. I decided not to risk a cross country train journey and headed instead to Deepdale. The snow miraculously disappeared between Wigan North Western and Preston, but there was still a bitingly cold wind and I had to choose my stand with care to make sure I was sheltered. My old team Leyton Orient earned a battling 0-0 draw, effectively ending both sides' play-off hopes. I missed a great 4-0 win at York Street with Alex Davidson netting a hat trick, but at least I saw the highlights online. On his day, Alex was unstoppable. Avenue were awarded their only penalty of the season in the 85th minute. Conference North defenders showed commendable restraint in their attempts to stifle Alex and Paul Walker over the course of the season.

 

Avenue's late season break also allowed me to cop new grounds at Rotherham and Crawley, leaving me with just Brighton to do to regain the full 92. I was pleasantly surprised to find a high frequency bus service running to the Broadfield Stadium on Good Friday, perhaps because of its proximity to GatwickAirport. Unfortunately I never saw the new AldershotTown play a league game at the Recreation Ground before their relegation back to the Conference.

 

The most important date in Avenue's calendar was the 31st March 2013. The club had to make specified ground improvements by that date in order to achieve a "B" grading, otherwise we would be relegated. Nothing had happened by the start of March apart from an appeal to supporters to buy shares, which I duly did. When the blizzards came, I feared the worst. The club and council could not agree on contractors and major work had to be done to the dressing rooms and floodlights. Furthermore new terracing had to be installed on the pavilion side.

 

Avenue did manage to do the work so sincerest congratulations to everybody involved. The graders were actually quite kind by allowing us to get away with a couple of rows of low patio steps – any more and spectators would have risked falling into Harold Park. And while the new lights were expensive, they did not look strong enough to achieve the "A" grading required for any subsequent promotion to Conference national. Money doesn't go very far these days.

 

There was still snow around the Shay on Easter Monday when Avenue arrived for the local derby. Star defender and captain James Knowles had stunned Avenue supporters by accepting Halifax's thirty pieces of silver the week before, even though we still had a chance of making the play-offs. I don't like disloyalty. However we had the last laugh when another Richard Marshall special earned Avenue a superb 1-0 win. With a pitch problems as bad as Harrogate's and worse than Horsfall, Halifax were miles behind with their fixtures and looked a tired lot. Unfortunately however, Avenue's Mr Reliable, left back Martin Drury sustained a serious injury which would keep him out for the rest of the season. This also weakened our forward line as it disrupted the excellent attacking partnership that left winger Paul Walker had built up with him. Two days later, a last gasp Danny Holland goal gave Avenue a 1-0 win over 10-man rivals Harrogate Town on a Horsfall glue pot, strengthening Avenue's play-off hopes.

 

While checking out pubs on Huddersfield Road for real ale, I discovered an excellent chip shop next to the Drop Kick which is sadly only keg. This was a relief as previous favourites were either closed on Mondays (or completely) or had started frying in vegetable oil instead of beef dripping. Having said that, the chips in the tea room at Horsfall are magnificent.

 

The trip to Hinckley's new stadium was not the formality we expected it to be. It took two late goals to give Avenue a flattering 4-1 score line and move us to eight wins and a draw in nine outings.

 

But the unexpectedly bad March weather had suddenly left Avenue with a fixture pile up in April and we faced OxfordCity home and away on the following Monday and Wednesday. Sadly we were beaten 2-1 at home and only managed a 1-1 draw away. I could not get to the away game so had to listen again on the online wireless, with fundraiser Trevor Heylings proving to be an excellent co-commentator.

 

The home game against hapless Droylsden was sponsored by the Guess the Gate participants, entitling us to hobnob in the directors' portacabin at half-time. We were treated to the most magnificent lamb curry and chapattis I have tasted in decades, but I have still no idea where they came from. It was a wrench to leave mine unfinished when the second half started. Now I understand why there are sometimes empty seats in corporate areas after the break.

 

A 5-0 win left Avenue six points behind fifth-placed Altrincham with two games in hand. The two clubs met at Horsfall four days later, so victory against Lee Sinnott's men was essential. The scores were level at 1-1 with seven minutes to go, thanks to yet another penalty save by John Lamb. Then Jordan Deacey went on a superb mazy dribble from the half-way line through the middle of the Altrincham defence, before slotting the ball into the net to give Avenue a 2-1 lead. But a minute later we conceded an equalizer and our promotion hopes were over.

 

As fate would have it, Avenue's last three fixtures were against the three clubs fighting to avoid the third relegation spot, Hinckley and Droylsden having succumbed a long time before. Our trip to Bishop's Stortford involved another train trip via London and a chance to grice the Stratford – Tottenham Hale link. The ground was half way to StanstedAirport, airport proximity being a theme this season, and was serviced by a rather unpunctual bus service. The huge queues on the approach road were actually going to the municipal dump, not the football ground.

 

But there was still a good crowd who soon started singing about what a c**p league this was and how they wanted to go home. If the league was so bad, why were they in relegation trouble I wonder? Nevertheless Stortford wanted the game more than Avenue in the second half and fought back from 1-0 down to win 2-1 and assure their safety.

 

At this point, me and the missus absconded to Malta for a holiday we had booked when Avenue were in the bottom half of the table. Malta has lots of football teams but very few grounds. Most Premier league games are played as double headers at either the National stadium or the Hibernians ground. The Hibernians ground in Paola is in an old industrial area and rather difficult to find from the nearest bus stop. When I arrived there late on Friday afternoon, there was hardly anybody around apart from a couple of police vans. With the league split into two, I saw two games in the relegation group and it only cost six euros for the pair. There were no programmes and even the more attractive second game only attracted 300-400 spectators. Rabat Ajax avoided relegation be beating Melita 4-1.

 

I missed a couple of big games at the National stadium on the Saturday, preferring to wait for the Sunday double header. The ground is in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the island but, after days of research, I discovered it could be reached by an obscure bus service from the local hospital. On arrival, I found the same clerk on duty in the ticket office so we had a chat. Lower league games were also taking place at the Centenary Stadium next door.

 

The first game saw Jonathan Holland's old side Floriana, playing in a green-and-white striped kit which would work very well for us, beat Hamrun Spartans 3-1 and condemn their opponents to the drop. In the second game, Hibernians, who seldom play at home, hammered Mosta 6-0. I thought I had plenty time to catch the hourly bus back to the hospital afterwards, but the devious driver left 10 minutes early. Malta's bus services have recently been taken over by Arriva but are still a shambles.

 

In the meantime, Avenue's season was ending in a damp squib. ColwynBay won 2-1 and Histon drew 0-0 at Horsfall to save both from the drop and send Corby down. Avenue thus finished in seventh place, well off the play-offs. And talented midfielder Nathan Hotte was red carded for throwing the ball at the referee late in our last game, so starts next season with a four match ban.

 

On the other side of town, Manningham also finished seventh, but were rewarded with a second trip to Wembley and promotion to the third division. Guiseley must have been particularly miffed, having finished second two seasons on the trot without going up. Halifax won the play-offs and the second promotion spot.

 

At this point, I usually make predictions about how Avenue might fare in the coming season. Often I have vibes about this which sometimes turn out to be correct. On this occasion, I am worried. The club seems to have gone into hibernation over the close season with no news or signings, leaving fundraising stalwart Maria Bruce apparently running the show. Basically we only have about eight players of genuine Conference North class and league clubs have offered trials to two of these in Michael Duckworth and Jordan Deacey. Wondering where our manager is going to find replacements for those who have been let go, and fearing complacency and second season blues, I see a relegation battle ahead. Needless to say, I hope I am wrong. I was last year.

THE 25th ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BRADFORD SUPPORTERS CLUB (ELLESMERE PORT BRANCH)

The 2012/13 season ended in a damp squib with Avenue fading in the last few weeks and missing out on a play-off spot. Nevertheless the club finished in a very creditable seventh position in their first year back in Conference North.

 

The close season was quiet, dreadfully quiet in fact with very little news emanating from the club. Manager John Deacey had obvious split loyalties, on the one hand trying to find Football League moves for his son Jordan and full back Michael Duckworth, and on the other trying to strengthen the squad. The pre-season fixture list was uninspiring, the highlight being a game against a scratch team of ex-patriot Pakistanis who were marketed as something grander than they actually were. Avenue strolled into a 3-0 lead and then threw it away with the central defenders looking like carthorses. Two late goals saved our blushes. A similar second-half horror show against Halifax saw a 4-0 lead pegged back to 4-3.

 

As per usual, my season started watching Wales’s minnows pit their wits against Scandinavia's and Eastern Europe’s finest in the qualifying rounds of the Europa and Champions Leagues. I saw BalaTown, Airbus UK Broughton, TNS and PrestatynTown give good accounts of themselves in July, even though none were able to play on their own grounds. Indeed TNS fans were outnumbered eight to one at Wrexham by the bare shirted hordes from Legia Warsaw.

 

The Football League started two weeks earlier than Conference North, so I headed to south Wales to see NewportCounty's return to Division 4, having seen their last game in 1988. Rodney Parade is a nice rugby union ground, far better than ramshackle SomertonPark. County hammered hapless Accrington 4-1, the latter becoming my hot tip for relegation. A week later I was down at Falmer to tick off Brighton's fine new stadium. This is in the middle of nowhere with virtually no parking so everybody goes by train and hopes it doesn't rain on the queue after the match.

 

Avenue faced two promoted sides in their first two matches which was less than ideal as they come full of confidence and enthusiasm. Like many sides from further south, Leamington had lost their former ground to developers and had now started up on a farmer's field many, many miles out of town. I opted for the only possible bus, which left well before 2 pm, rather than fork out £12 for a taxi. Sadly the home side prevailed by two goals to nil. The bus back to town was due at 5.45 pm and blobbed, which caused panic among the half dozen or so of us at the lonely bus stop. Eventually we returned to the ground and were offered a lift to the station in the Leamington FC minibus for a quid apiece. That's what I call a friendly club. The service bus had apparently been delayed by the re-enactment of some historical battle in a nearby village.

 

Pre-season fears about our defence really came to roost two days later when we were stuffed 4-0 at home by North Ferriby, despite the return of star central defender James Knowles from his sojourn in Halifax. 2-2 draws against struggling Barrow and away at Stalybridge did little to lift the doom and gloom. Five days later we were 3-0 down at home to lowly OxfordCity at half time and reduced to ten men after Adam Clayton was red carded. It couldn't get any worse and it didn't. A miraculous recovery saw 10-man Avenue fight back to draw 3-3 thanks to a last gasp equalizer from Steve Mallory.

 

Like Leamington, WorcesterCity had also lost their ground and were now playing in exile in Kidderminster. This afforded me the chance to catch the train to Wolverhampton and a bus to Bridgnorth railway station in order to pay a brief visit to the Bridgnorth beer festival before the game. I then caught the Severn valley steam train to Kidderminster and even had a quick ride on the miniature railway there before staggering along to Aggborough. A good day was rounded off with a late winner from that man again, Steve Mallory. A week later Avenue gave one of their best performances of the season, outplaying AFC Telford United at Horsfall and running out 3-1 winners.

 

Near neighbours Guiseley had made a surprisingly poor start to the season and resurgent Avenue went to Nethermoor full of confidence. Avenue were even awarded the penalty instead of their hosts which Richard Marshall duly tucked away. Manningham loanee Louis Swain added a second ten minutes from time as Avenue kept a rare clean sheet.

 

After a hard fought 2-2 draw at home to Solihull, Avenue made a midweek trip to Boston which was way too far from Ellesmere Port which is why the crowd was 999 and not 1,000. After taking a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes, it was backs-to-the-wall stuff, but Avenue hung on to win 3-2 on what is becoming a very lucky ground for us. In the meantime I managed to get a ticket for the Manchester derby and enjoyed seeing the light blues beat FCUM's first team 4-1.

 

The FA Cup saw Avenue drawn away to Guiseley who had now impatiently parted company with manager Steve Kittrick and replaced him with Mark Bower. Neither match attracted a huge crowd, even though the green and white army travelled in numbers, showing how fickle our neighbours' supporters are. I had a train ride down to Ilkley en route as the fare was the same. Louis Swain was now a Guiseley player but could not stop Avenue winning 2-1.

 

Despite a few foreign trips with work, I only managed one overseas game which was a German cup tie between second division 1.FC Kaiserslautern and first division Hertha Berlin. I was desperately hoping the game would not go to extra time as I had a couple of late trains to catch to get back to my hotel afterwards. In the event, FCK fought back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 and I made my train despite going the wrong way down the big hill on which the ground is built. The atmosphere was great even though there were lots of empty seats in the 50,000 capacity arena. I later found out that Hertha had fielded a weakened side which took away some of the gloss. I now work in Manchester, so a week later I was back at Eastlands watching Bayern take Manchester apart, any excuse to avoid the M56 rush hour traffic.

 

The club's penchant for late goals was maintained the next week at Solihull when Chris Howarth earned us a point three minutes from time. A well-known Avenue fan missed it so he didn't have to wait half an hour at the bus stop by the Rolls Royce factory and lose 30 minutes drinking time. Honestly the beer in Solihull is not that good. Chris did it again a week later at Horsfall to stop Northern League Penrith taking us to a deserved replay in the FA Cup.

 

Me and the missus then flew off to Sardinia for a train-spotting holiday but arrived in Cagliari three hours too late to see their 2-1 win against Catania. Fewer than 5,000 were present. This meant we missed Avenue's FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie against Kidderminster Harriers from the Conference Premier. By all accounts, we gave them a football lesson in the first game and almost won it in an almighty goal-line scramble in the last minute. The replay was goalless after 90 minutes but tiredness and injuries finally took their toll as we went down 2-1 in extra time. The Harriers went on to reach the fourth round proper before finally bowing out 1-0 at Sunderland.

 

We returned from holiday just in time for the GloucesterCity game and the second Avenue beer festival. Avenue's home crowds are abysmal for a Conference North outfit and it is obvious that we cannot pay our way on gate receipts alone. The club relies on the largesse of its benefactors and desperately needs other sources of income. Sadly publicity wasn't great and so the turn out was poor. Indeed there were only 9 people left in the clubhouse when me and the missus departed at 9.30 pm. The event didn't lose money as a few of us, myself included, had sponsored barrels at £50 a time. But a lot of the beer went down the drain. Getting people to Horsfall for social events is proving to be a real problem, with many fans living long distances from the ground and poor evening bus services.

 

The trip to Gainsborough is always a highlight as it affords gricers the chance to catch one of the three trains per week to Gainsborough Central. The beer is pretty good too. Avenue fought back from 2-0 down to 2-2 only to throw it away conceding twice late on. Despite this being early November, the weather turned nasty and I had to beg a lift to Lea Road station afterwards from our good friend in Lincoln in order to catch the rail replacement bus on the line to Sheffield from that city. By the time we arrived there were piles of hailstones on the ground.

 

In the FA Trophy, Avenue drew 1-1 at HarrogateTown, as we always seem to do, and then won the replay easily by four unanswered goals as, for some reason, Town no longer seemed interested. A week later I paid a midweek visit to Northampton to see Coventry in exile in front of less than 2,000 fans, half of whom were from Rotherham. It's a hard life keeping up your membership of the "92 club".

 

As luck would have it, Avenue were again drawn against Kidderminster in the FA Trophy and this time we got our just deserts coming out on top 2-1. A great win but there was some suspicion that Harriers' minds were on the FA Cup. Nevertheless this was the first time we had beaten a Conference Premier club since we were reformed in 1987.

 

Living where I do, you have to favour one Merseyside team or the other and it was an easy decision to become a token blue. So seeing the Toffees grab a late 1-0 win over those two turncoats Moyes and Rooney at Old Trafford was one of the highlights of the season. If there's one thing I hate about modern football, its disloyalty. It's a pity I had to watch the game in a home stand so had to keep quiet.

 

You would have thought that a 2-0 victory at my local side Vauxhall Motors would have meant I could show my face around EllesmerePort. But the honest truth is I don't know a single Vauxhall supporter. So it came as little surprise when their side quit the league at the end of the season.

 

Having drawn Kidderminster and Harrogate in two cup competitions, I predicted on the "Guess the Gate" forum that we would get Guiseley in the Trophy. And so it came to pass, but Keith refused to give me any points. With Avenue down to ten men in a fearsome battle, the rejuvenated Lions just had the edge and led 1-0 going into injury time. Then Avenue threw caution to the wind and got caught twice on the break to give the hosts a flattering 3-0 score line.

 

The fixture compilers had given Avenue two mouth-watering games against relegated StockportCounty, at Horsfall on Boxing Day and EdgeleyPark on New Year's Day. But like mugs, we switched the fixtures around, scared of clashing with Manningham. Police advice was the excuse. If that was true then County were being rewarded for their hooligan behaviour at Kidderminster last season. I was fuming as I spend Christmas in Bradford and so had to drive back over the Pennines as there are no trains. The Boxing Day game was a mare as we conceded two early gaols and went on to lose 4-1. Then, predictably, the New Year's Day game was postponed so we lost out on a bumper crowd.

 

Despite all our pleas to the council, the Horsfall pitch continues to be a disgrace and it is a wonder that anybody wants to play on it. It is also freezing cold for the players thanks to the exposed location. Thankfully spectators are well protected in a south facing stand. But a big thank you as ever to Kev and Maria and Dave and the two Johns and all the others who do such a great job getting games on and putting out a competitive team, despite all the odds. Rumour has it that our manager works for next to nothing.

 

Avenue put their troubles behind them and ended a six game losing streak with an unexpected 6-1 thrashing of WorcesterCity. A nervous 3-2 win at Gloucester's home in exile at Cheltenham ensued after we had led 3-0. New signing Ross Gardner arrived from Swedish level 6 side Ytterhogdal IK and scored a simple tap in on his debut against Worcester. Two weeks later he equalized in injury time against Hednesford only for the Avenue defence to go to sleep and let visiting midfielder Elliott Durrell walk through the entire team and slot home the winner for a goal which became a major hit on You Tube. The game also saw star forward Alex Davidson suffer a serious injury which would keep him out for the rest of the season. This was a serious blow to our hopes.

 

Yet again, Avenue drew 1-1 at Harrogate, this time in the league before finally facing Stockport on a miserable Monday night in February, Less than 600 turned up and saw the visitors complete a double with two late goals. And as one whose sympathies are on the green side of Glasgow, it was to irritating to hear County's take on "The Sash" echoing around the ground.

 

Avenue's defence struggled in the first half of the season but was strengthened by the arrival of Ryan Qualter and Grant Black. James Knowles was a rock, as usual, but missed around ten games due to suspension. Nevertheless I often tore my hair out as John Deacey and Mark Hume played with just three at the back.

 

Avenue have never been very good at celebrating anniversaries. But the board had at least recognized the 150th anniversary of the formation of the original Bradford Football Club in 1863 by changing to a nominal red, amber and black kit for 2012/13, even if it did look mainly white and a tad sunbeamy. My fault, to some extent, for setting up a historical website www.bradfordfc.org.uk to remind people that there was life, and football, at Park Avenue before 1907. But thankfully the club reverted to our normal green and white colours for 2013/14. To many people's disbelief, the board chose lilac shirts for our away kit rather than some combination of our vintage colours. 2013/14 was of course the 25th anniversary of the reformation of the club, but this went by unmarked except for the production of the odd badge.

 

Telford is an excellent beer drinking town and imbibers have been boosted by an increase in the number of trains stopping at Oakengates where there are three Good Beer Guide pubs on the same street. The new Bucks Head is now a fine stadium. Avenue gave a performance worthy of their surroundings and were unfortunate to lose 2-1 to the eventual Conference North champions.

 

With the sides near the bottom improving, supporters started to cast their eyes downwards instead of upwards. However the club had five home games in a row to look forward to and it was critical that points be accrued. The run started badly with a 0-0 draw against Vauxhall, just before they announced their withdrawal from the league, followed by a 2-1 defeat to ColwynBay. The home game against bottom club Workington was suddenly looking like a six pointer after the Cumbrians had strung together a couple of wins. A 1-0 win thanks to well-taken Chib Chilaka goal eased the tension. Harrogate got a 0-0 draw in the fifth meeting between the clubs before Avenue stuffed Gainsborough 4-0 in a game I listened to on my mobile phone at HeathrowAirport, thanks to the excellent support given to us by BCB radio.

 

A back-to-the walls defensive display at promotion contenders Brackley was rewarded when player of the season Paul Walker fired home an unstoppable shot just before the end. We realized just how good this win was a week later when Brackley won 5-0 at Bradford.

 

Avenue ended the season like the previous one with a string of fixtures against sides threatened with relegation. I was up at the crack of dawn to catch the early morning train to Helsby, in order to travel to Workington via the scenic Cumbrian coast line via Barrow and Windscale. I even managed to find some half decent beer in Workington for once, thanks to the CAMRA WhatPub mobile phone application. Avenue are Workington's bogey team and we cantered to a fourth successive double against the Reds. Histon were our next visitors but had given up the ghost in their relegation battle and their youthful squad was swept aside 3-0. This really was boys against men.

 

A week later, it was back to Cumbria where I stayed on the train beyond Barrow to go to the homebrew pub at Foxfield. This is exciting as Foxfield is a request stop and passengers wishing to alight must give notice to the guard. This was only the second time I had done this, the first being at Godley East, now closed, where only one train a week used to stop if anybody asked. This came as a surprise to the driver. The game at Holker Street was a low key end of season affair won by a single goal from Paul Beasley.

 

Stalybridge arrived at Horsfall on Easter Monday needing a point for safety and Avenue seemed more than happy to give it to them. The game ended 1-1. Having missed the midweek game at OxfordCity the previous year, I was pleased to be able to do Marsh Lane on the final day of Avenue's season. City were hounded out of their city centre ground by the university on a legal technicality many years ago and had almost disappeared. But they are now alive and kicking on a nice complex on the edge of town which even had real ale on.

 

Strangely not a single penalty had been missed by either side all season in any of Avenue's league matches. Nicky Boshell and Richard Marshall were lethal from 12 yards while keeper John Lamb had lost his knack of saving spot kicks although, to be fair, I don't remember him having a chance with any of them. This all changed when John finally made a penalty save, only for Oxford to score from the resulting corner. Avenue kept up their 100% record when Richard Marshall scored a late equalizer from the spot to earn us a point. Nicky Boshell in the meantime was yet again sat in the stand, despite the side being very short of players, having apparently had a disagreement with the management team. We finished a creditable 11th.

 

As ever, I then spent May big occasion chasing. I had very mixed feelings when Everton played ManchesterCity as the last thing I wanted was for Liverpool to win the league. Not too many tears were shed when City won 3-2. My attentions then turned to Leyton Orient who I supported in the late 1970's when Avenue were out of business. I managed to get a ticket in the Peterborough end for the first leg of the play-off at London Road and had to get a very early train to make the 12.15 kick off. I was rewarded with a 1-1 draw and the chance to redo the NeneValley railway, the last return working leaving Peterborough at 14.30. I was almost knocked down by a car load of Orient fans as I rushed across the car park. I couldn't get down to London for the second leg which Orient won 2-1.

 

The ticketing arrangements for the final were a joke. These were entrusted to the company doing the Leeds and Reading pop festivals and they clearly couldn't cope with the workload. I ordered mine the Monday before the game, as early as was allowed, but it wasn't posted until the Friday before the game, probably because my name begins with a Z. So I demanded that they print a duplicate for collection at Wembley. This meant that I had to get there early forcing me to drive to Stockport to get a train because of all the Bank Holiday Sunday engineering works. I parked in the same a spot as when Avenue were at Edgeley.

Orient scored a great goal and stormed to a 2-0 half time lead. I thought that after Hull's disappointing capitulation against Arsenal in the FA Cup final and Atleticos's late gut wrenching concession against Real in the Champions League, that lightning couldn't strike three times in the same season. But it did. A goalkeeping mistake and another wonder goal saw Rotherham draw level and take the game to extra time and penalties. Rotherham missed one early doors but the O's then missed two and so a great season ended in heartbreak. This was the first time I had seen any of my "other" teams at Wembley.

England were pathetic in the World Cup and for the second time in 16 years I saw them go out when watching on a TV in Paris. It had been a bad omen. As soon as I got back, I booked a holiday to the Outer Hebrides to get away from it all.

• I am writing this slightly later than usual and, for once, the club has been more forthcoming about comings and goings. We have lost Jordan Deacey to Telford and James Knowles to FCUM, but have kept the rest of our better players and added a few new signings. I predict another mid-table finish.