BRADFORD Park Avenue go into their Vanarama National North fixture on Saturday looking down on the relegation places for the first time since the opening week of September.

Mark Bower’s men head to Bower Fold to take on a Stalybridge Celtic side still very much in the drop zone, but the Avenue boss knows that his players have only succeeded in accomplishing the first phase of mission safety.

Bower said: “It’s been a long time coming but from the position Avenue were in when we took over it was always going to take a while.

“It’s nice to be out of the bottom three, and the lads deserve a lot of credit for achieving part one, but part two is still to come and there is a lot of work still to be done and a lot of effort to put in.

“We’ll try to get above a few more clubs and get as high as we can in the table before the end of the season.

"We’ve won our last three league games and Stalybridge have had back-to-back defeats, but that means nothing.

“They will be battling for their lives, they beat us at our place earlier in the season and they have a new manager who will turn their fortunes around, but our lads should be confident, and if we play like we can do there’s no reason why we can’t take all three points.”

Avenue have more than twice as many wins in the league as their hosts and have banked more than twice as many points as second-from- bottom Stalybridge.

The Celts do have two games in hand on Avenue and many of their relegation rivals and, despite taking only six points from the last 30,  they did beat promotion-chasing FC Halifax Town in that run.

They are now under the stewardship of vastly experienced Steve Burr.

The former Southport and Macclesfield Town boss was appointed earlier this month and the Celts board are so sure of his pedigree that he’s signed a deal to the end of next season.

Avenue were knocked out of the West Riding County Cup last Monday following a home defeat to Farsley Celtic in the semi-finals.

Bower’s hands were tied in terms of his selection that night but he’ll have almost all of his squad available for this six-pointer.

He said: “The four cup-tied lads will be back in the squad, as will the other players who are registered with us but weren’t eligible. I was left very frustrated by that particular competition’s rules on Monday.

“We’ve got fit players who have been involved in three straight victories that we can bring in so there’ll be a completely different approach to Saturday's game.”

* For Bower’s full thoughts on Monday’s debacle see the T&A’s non-league page on Saturday.