Bradford Park Avenue 2 Gloucester City 1

Avenue made life difficult for themselves at home to Gloucester but had enough strength of character to beat their visitors.

It was their second home league win on the spin but they conceded a penalty for the third game in a row.

And they had goalkeeper Tim Deasy to thank for rescuing them again.

Saturday’s penalty save was particularly pivotal as Gloucester would have taken the lead had Darren Edwards been successful from the spot.

The visiting striker was on a high at the time after hitting an equaliser for his side a minute earlier.

Avenue had held a slender lead from the ninth minute after Paul Walker’s classy finish. A raking through ball from Richard Marshall had invited Walker to race on to it and he outstripped his marker and exquisitely passed the ball into the net between the keeper and post.

The home side seemed to be heading for a big victory as they dominated that early period. The game changed just before the half-hour though when Edwards poked the ball in from point-blank range after some dreadful defending in front of Deasy.

A matter of 60 seconds later Nathan Hotte made a rash challenge just inside the right-hand side of the area under the nose of the referee. There was a delay of almost two minutes as Hotte’s central defensive partner James Knowles received treatment for a shoulder injury before Edwards could take the spot kick. He placed it well but failed to get enough power on it and Deasy gathered the ball diving to his left.

The half-time break could not come quickly enough for boss John Deacey to rally his troops. Whatever he said worked and Marshall sent in a drive that came back off the foot of the post before netting the winner.

A slide rule pass from Holland in the 72nd minute found Marshall in space. He still had work to do but he created room for the shot before firing in from the edge of the area.

Deacey said: “We were very much on top for the first 20 to 25 minutes but once again we have let ourselves down with a very, very sloppy goal. I wouldn’t mind but I thought our back four were fantastic apart from that couple of minutes.

“The penalty save was definitely a turning point and you have to give Tim credit. Keepers don’t always get the acclaim they deserve and it’s nice that he gets the plaudits after two crucial penalty saves.”

Deasy saved an injury-time spot-kick in the 2-1 win over Boston in the last league game at Horsfall Stadium. He was beaten from the spot in the FA Cup tie at Carlton Town the following Saturday but Avenue won that tie 3-1.