TWO of last season's Bradford Park Avenue stalwarts will be returning to the Horsfall Stadium this afternoon in the opposition camp.

Last term's top scorer Chib Chilaka and club captain Simon Ainge both signed for neighbours Harrogate Town in the summer. Avenue boss Alex Meechan was not in charge when they departed and is looking forward to welcoming them back.

Meechan was Darren Edmondson's assistant at the end of last season on an interim basis but neither of them knew where they stood when the season ended.

There were some issues for the club's board to sort out before they appointed Meechan as manager on a permanent basis.

It was in that time lapse when the two players left the club. Director of football Terry Dolan was handling matters at the time but he was preparing for the one-third budget cut that he had been warned was being implemented.

Ainge and Chilaka were offered good deals elsewhere and moved on – but Meechan was happy to assemble a squad almost from scratch when he came in, so there was no animosity surrounding the departures of the duo.

"Football always throws up these little scenarios and it's no surprise that the fixture list had this game so early into the new season," said Meechan.

"It will be a good day for the two players, coming back to their old club, and there will be a bit of emotion from the fans seeing them playing against us. Chib and Simon will enjoy it, I'm sure, as there is always something special about going back.

"But I've seen it down the years – it's never easy for ex-players to play against their old club either. There are two sides to a coin and you often see both on occasions like this.

"I'll be glad to see them and I'm looking forward to shaking their hands. When we were here for the last couple of months of last season, they were great players for Edmo and me.

"Their attitude was superb and it was clear that they were crowd favourites. Their effort was always 100 per cent in training and in games – they were just fantastic people to have around the football club."