Bradford Park Avenue 4, Bishop Auckland 1

Avenue will be in tomorrow’s draw for the FA Cup second qualifying round and by way of a bonus they reached that stage without overreaching themselves ahead of tonight’s UniBond League home game against Boston United.

The Bradford club were widely expected to edge past Bishop Auckland yesterday, despite the visitors’ proud FA Cup tradition.

On the day they did more than just edge the game, they dominated it and should have finished with a much bigger margin.

It was overdue when Avenue broke the deadlock, even though that was only in the 19th minute.

The strike came from a set-piece when a handball on the edge of the area led to a free-kick that Mark Bett curled into the top corner of the net with the Auckland goalkeeper rooted to his line.

The visitors levelled the tie just four minutes later with a set-piece of their own after an indiscretion by former Bantam Simon Ainge.

The big centre back missed a chance to make a clean tackle outside the area and he paid the price.

Ainge brought Wayne Gredziak down in the area and visiting skipper Stephen Salvin came forward to roll the spot-kick right down the middle, past diving Avenue keeper Steve Dickinson.

Avenue earned a fortunate corner just after the half-hour mark and from it Aiden Savory netted at the second attempt after his first shot was blocked by a defender.

The home side led 3-1 at the break after Andy Campbell and Simon Baldry provided a chance for Savory to claim his second in stoppage time.

Avenue dominated the second period to such an extent that Bett and Savory were both presented with enough chances to have bagged themselves a hat-trick.

As it happened there was just one more goal to celebrate as Ainge, who had a good game overall, atoned for his first-half misdemeanour by scoring.

Yet again it was a set-piece goal, with Ainge heading high into the net after Bett had delivered a corner to the back post.

Avenue boss Lee Sinnott said: “On another day we could have had more goals but a win is a win and we are all delighted to be in the hat for the next round.

“It means the two league defeats and the midweek postponement are behind us now and we can go into tomorrow’s game with confidence high.

“We didn’t need to use the substitutes on Saturday, though we managed to get Laurence Hunter on from the bench for match fitness, so we have players rested who were carrying slight knocks and strains.

“It will be a hard game tomorrow but we go into it in very good spirits.”