THE change may be slight, but Bradford Park Avenue have taken an important step back in time to herald a brighter future.

The National League North club are reverting back to their old name – by reinstating the brackets in their title – along with a stylish coat of arms badge, and will now be known and referred to as Bradford (Park Avenue) AFC.

Club owner, Gareth Roberts, and CEO, Rob Stanley, are sure that the move will please their fans.

Roberts said: "Although we are in the process of changing ownership of the club to a Community Interest Company from the Community Benefit Society, we are aware how important our fans are to the club.

"With this in mind, we have decided to re-introduce the brackets and the club will now be known as Bradford (Park Avenue) AFC and we will be reverting back to the coat of arms badge.

"The club is committed to being part of the community and appreciate the commitment the fans make to this great club.

"This is a new era, albeit an old name and badge, and we are looking forward to the new season and your continued support."

Meanwhile, Stanley explained: "In one way we are stepping back to move forward. During discussions with fans and committee members, it became apparent that a return to the old name and badge was high on everybody’s agenda.

"This club has a proud history and, hopefully, a bright future. We have to ensure the club is sustainable and we move forward one step at a time.

"We are determined to put this club at the heart of the community and increase our brand awareness within the city. Our fans are vitally important to us and we hope that they will show the excellent support they have shown over the years."

Their hopes that the move would satisfy the fans appears to be correct as several of them have expressed their delight over the decision.

On a club forum, kev54 commented: "This is excellent news and I feel like I have my old club back.

"The experiment with the community club was certainly worth the try and it surely wasn’t for the want of the brackets in our name that the venture did not succeed, but I was very unhappy with the decision to jettison them from our name.

"It was something unique in football and enabled us to be correctly referred to by the name the original founders of the club back in 1907 chose (Bradford Football Club), and the name the club were mostly known by during their Football League days."

Another poster, The Net, simply said: "Good news, it gives us a sense of identity."