No rest for busy Avenue in title chase
7:46pm Sunday 23rd March 2008
The busy Easter period sees four of the top non-league clubs from the Bradford area with tough fixtures tomorrow, just days after their last outings.
PARK AVENUE, who will be aiming to maintain their 100 per cent record since Dave Cameron took over, have had the busiest week of any of their UniBond Division One North rivals or their neighbours.
Cameron's men played two Saturdays ago, last Monday and Wednesday and also Good Friday. All of the games ended with victories, lifting Avenue up to second place in the division as well as into the final of the West Riding County Cup.
They travel to Clitheroe tomorrow knowing another victory could lift them to the summit. Avenue are just two points adrift of leaders Skelmersdale United but have a couple of games in hand on them and one on third-placed Curzon Ashton.
Club secretary Steve Burnett said: "Clitheroe are in good form. They were the last team to take points off us when they drew at our place and they have had a couple of impressive wins since.
"I spoke to Dave after the 4-1 win over Mossley on Friday and he said none of the players had told him of any injuries from that game.
"He also underlined that he would not allow anyone to take anything for granted. To be fair, even though we have six wins from six games, he has done that all the way along."
In the Blue Square Premier, FARSLEY CELTIC face a tough task to undo the harm they caused to their fight to avoid relegation in their last game.
After a run of results that lifted the Celts to sixth from bottom, they slumped to a 4-0 defeat at third-bottom Northwich Victoria yesterday.
The opposition standing in the way of Farsley making amends is none other than promotion contenders Burton Albion. They are managed by former Liverpool and England midfielder Nigel Clough, son of legendary footballer and boss Brian.
Back in the UniBond League, GUISELEY have home advantage over Stamford in the Premier Division. Like Avenue, Guiseley's last fixture was on Good Friday rather than Saturday and, also like their neighbours, they won.
A 2-1 victory at Whitby Town has put them in good spirits for the first-ever visit to Nethermoor of Stamford and another win would see Steve Kittrick's men still in the hunt for a play-off place.
SILSDEN are in action as well but their roses derby at Cougar Park against Nelson is a noon kick-off. Nelson are the Cobbydalers' nearest rivals, despite being from the western side of the Pennine peaks. They need a good result to get yesterday's disappointing defeat out of their system.
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