Bradford Park Avenue boss Simon Collins has been pleased with the overall pre-season campaign but it has not gone without complication.

Several injuries, a borrowed goalkeeper and one disappointing result have ensured that it has not been the perfect build-up to the former Huddersfield Town midfielder’s first season in charge.

Collins had a 12-month spell as a player at Horsfall Stadium, so is not a complete newcomer, and he has linked up once again with one of his former Terriers team-mates in Simon Baldry.

Baldry marauding down the right flank was one of the many plus points from last season’s promotion near miss. Many players have since departed – some in search of cash, some to pursue their dream of playing a division higher – but Baldry stayed loyal and is now first team player-coach.

Keeper Ben Scott was one of Collins’ first signings but also one of the first to be sidelined.

“It was a suspected broken leg at first but the medical people put it down to a badly damaged calf muscle,” said Collins.

“Ben picked up the injury in the friendly at Brighouse Town and had to go to hospital for treatment. Now, weeks later, they are saying he could have kidney trouble because of a second knock in the same incident on his back.

“He is still under his doctor at the minute, so until we get him back we can’t assess the extent of the injury. We can’t even hazard a guess as to how long he will be out or even if he will be able to return to training before the season starts.”

Dan Taylor was on Brighouse Town’s bench in the game against Avenue and they had no objections to him playing for Collins’ side.

“He has played a few games since then – but he was at Bradford City when he was learning his trade, so has the right pedigree,” said Collins.

“He has had a couple of years out of the game because he works for himself and wanted to build up his business. That was his priority back then but he has time to play now and is enjoying it.”

Collins added: “The Brighouse result was the only disappointment of the pre-season for me. Their keeper on the day had a great game but we still could have been six or seven goals up before they scored the winner.

“The other injuries are Rob O’Brien, who has broken the dreaded metatarsal and saw a specialist on Tuesday – the day we played City – and Martin Drury, who picked up ligament damage in the game at Pontefract last Saturday.”