The Silkmen are back at The Leasing.com Stadium this Saturday as Bradford Park Avenue make the journey from West Yorkshire.
Alex Bruce’s side will be looking to push on over the busy Christmas period and Saturday’s fixture starts a run of four games in ten days.
We take a look a closer look at our opponents in Opposition Focus.
HISTORY
Bradford (Park Avenue) Association Football Club is an association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in Northern Premier League Premier Division, at the seventh tier of the English football league system. The name derived from their former home at Park Avenue, and was used to avoid confusion with Bradford derby rivals Bradford City.
The club was founded in 1907 and moved from the Southern League into the Football League the next year. They were promoted into the First Division at the end of the 1913–14 season, but suffered consecutive relegations by 1922. They won the Third Division North title in 1927–28 and remained in the Second Division until 1950. Promoted from the Fourth Division in 1960–61, the club were relegated from the Third Division in 1963. The club failed in their Football League re-election bid in 1970 and spent the next four seasons in the Northern Premier League before disbanding.
The present club is a reincarnation that was established in 1987. They moved from the Central Midlands League into the North West Counties League in 1990, gaining promotion from Division Two in 1990–91. They moved into their present home at Horsfall Stadium in 1996 having previously won the North West Counties League Division One title, and then the Northern Premier League Premier Division in 2000–01. Relegated in two successive seasons in 2006, they won the Northern Premier League First Division title in 2007–08 and gained promotion from the Premier Division via the play-offs in 2012.
CURRENT FORM
It has been a tough few weeks for The Green Army who are without a win in their last five games seeing them fall into the league’s bottom four. Tom McStravick is in Interim charge since manager Mark Bower left the club at the start of November.
Last time out, Avenue fell to a 2-1 defeat to Atherton Collieries at the Horsfall Stadium. BPA’s only point in their last five games came away at Lancaster City where a brace from Chinedu Osadebe helped Avenue to a point.
Gainsborough Trinity inflicted a comeback victory coming from a goal down to win 2-1 at the Kal Group Stadium. This wasn’t the only game where Bradford were pegged back from a winning position as Matlock Town came from 2-0 to win 3-2 on the road in a game where both sides finished with 10 men. This coupled with a defeat away to Basford United means that Avenue are without a win in their last five games.
ONE TO WATCH
WILL LONGBOTTOM – FORWARD
Will Longbottom is one to watch out for for Avenue. The forward has scored seven goals so far in all competitions most recently in a defeat to Atherton Collieries.
Longbottom has been almost an ever present in The Green Army’s side making 19 appearances so far this season.
The 25 year old made his first team debut for Doncaster Rovers back in 2016 before securing a move to Waterford in Ireland. The forward has had two spells at BPA with his current spell starting back in early 2022.
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
Saturday’s fixture will be the second meeting between the two sides. The first came in the opening game of this season as goals from Alex Curran and Luke Duffy on his Silkmen debut helped Macc to a 2-0 victory on the road at The Horsfall Stadium.
