BRADFORD Park Avenue boss John Deacey's frustration at having a blank Saturday last weekend mounted when he received more bad injury news.

Recent signing Chris Lever will be the fourth Avenue player to undergo surgery this season. Lever was sent for another scan by his specialist in midweek and it revealed his knee was more badly damaged than was first thought.

Deacey said: “I can’t believe we have another player who needs to go under the knife. The amount of knee injuries we have suffered lately is just ridiculous.

“But I think Chris is probably one of the lucky ones, he will have the knee op quickly and has been told he might be back in four weeks. Adam Clayton has had his surgery but will be out for the season and Alex Davidson is still waiting for his op but will be out for the season once it’s done.”

Bradford have other players missing for today’s Vanarama Conference North home game against Tamworth and Deacey has even be robbed of a potential debutant because of a suspension.

With just 15 players available, including player-coach Jamie Price, there is a possibility that John Lamb will be on the bench. Goalkeeper Lamb has retired but is on the coaching staff and will make himself available.

Deacey added: “Nathan Turner has trained this week but he’s not ready and Nathan Hotte has got no chance. I was on the verge of signing a lad from Garforth Town but he is suspended so I held off.

“We might sign him in time for him to be available for the Goole cup tie on Tuesday but we’ll have to check if he is cup-tied. A lot of the other clubs are using the (West Riding) County Cup games to get their squad players some game time but we can’t do that.

“If I’m lucky I might be able to get the new signing involved and maybe one or two of the lads who have been injured. It would be good to get them 40 minutes or half an hour to get them going again.

“We haven’t played for a fortnight and that has been a bit frustrating. On one hand, we haven’t had to get our stretched squad through another couple of games and we are better off having a lot of games when we get everyone back.

“But on the other hand we had just beaten Barrow and got a point at Hednesford. I felt that the confidence was just coming back and the next game couldn’t come quickly enough for the players. It’s just been one of those season’s so far.”