New chairman Dr John Dean is looking forward to his role at the club he has supported since boyhood and is upbeat about Avenue's chances of avoiding their first relegation since re-forming.

One of his first tasks was to speak to his counterpart at Bradford City, Julian Rhodes, a man he knows well from their involvement in Filtronic.

It was a productive discussion and resulted in Daniel Ekoku joining the Conference North outfit on loan.

"It is a coincidence that the Rhodes family are involved at Valley Parade and myself at Horsfall Stadium - not something that was pre-planned in any way," said Dean.

"But it is no coincidence that we now have Daniel helping us out. Of course, I know Julian very well, I did my PhD with his father and we have worked for the same company for several years, and he suggested Danny to us as a player who could make a difference.

"We have not had a real goal-scorer and that is not being dismissive of the players that we have. I think they, and Carl Shutt, would be the first to acknowledge that. The first signs from Daniel last Saturday were very promising.

"He has pace and skill. He had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside, which I don't think a lot of our people agreed with.

"I know Carl is trying his best to get other forwards in and we on the board are fully behind him. I strongly believe that if we get someone scoring we can still get out of trouble."

Dean feels Avenue have a very good man in charge of team affairs and hopes a second high-profile City star will soon join the club. He wants to see Wayne Jacobs at Avenue and says Julian Rhodes has given him permission to approach the left back.

Dean said: "I'm very keen to see Avenue developing again, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me."