WHEN Mark Bower and Danny Boshell signed up for another 18 months at Bradford Park Avenue, it would be safe to say the fans were beside themselves with glee.

Avenue supporters were delirious after Monday's 1-1 draw at leaders Fylde guaranteed the club's National League North status for another season.

Then when news broke soon after the final whistle that manager Bower and his assistant, and midfield general, Boshell had put pen to paper on deals keeping them in tandem at Horsfall Stadium until at least January 2019, the Avenue message board and social media feeds were extremely lively.

When asked if the deal they had signed had been on the table for a while, Bower admitted: "We began talking about it a couple of weeks ago."

The former Bradford centre back had neatly sidestepped questions, as he did forwards while breaking out of defence in his playing days, about his future over recent weeks.

Bower insisted that until the club's own future was settled, nothing would be either confirmed or denied and that was the correct stance. When the announcement was made, it was like double celebration.

"We always wanted to be here next season and once we knew that the board wanted us here, it was just a matter of asking a few questions," said Bower.

"When the offer was made, Bosh and I discussed it. We needed to know if we'd have a competitive budget, what the backing would be and if we'd be able to build on what we've started.

"It was just a case of ironing out a few things and there was a little bit of backwards and forwards until it was all sorted out. It was a remarkable achievement by the players and we've got to set ourselves up now and look to the future.

"There will be some strong teams in this division next season, and a few more going full time, but our aim is to be challenging them.

"We've got Stockport County coming to us this weekend and a big club like that are pushing to get into the play-offs. We want to be rivalling those clubs.

"We have got decent foundations to build on and scope to improve the squad over the summer. We showed on Monday that we can be a match for this year's leaders, so let's go on and be up there competing this time next year."