BRADFORD Park Avenue chairman Dr John Dean will seek to appoint an experienced successor to head coach Alex Meechan, who was relieved of his duties yesterday.

The axe fell on Meechan after he failed to win any of the 11 games so far this season and slumped to an eighth straight loss in the FA Cup at home to Salford on Saturday.

The result equalled the losing record of the reformed club, who sit bottom of the Vanarama National League North having picked up just three points from their 10 league games so far.

Meechan will continue his role as the coach of the new Avenue Academy and the search for his replacement is gathering pace, with an appointment expected before this weekend’s trip to derby rivals Halifax.

Dean said: “Alex has been asked to concentrate on the academy because it is a full-time job in its own right, never mind doing trying to do alongside the first-team position.

“We are in discussions at the moment and are hoping to make an announcement in the next few days.

“We have spoken to a few people and would like something sorted before our next match on Saturday.

“We need someone with experience at this level because it's a very tough league as we know.

“We've got a very tough task ahead to stay in this division given our current position.

“We're going to have to play well to stay up but there will be some money available for players I think to strengthen the squad in certain areas.

“We are not that far off and against Salford it was a close game.

“They have obviously got a much bigger budget than ours and we nearly did it there, as we did against Darlington.

“So I don't think the side is that far away from turning the corner.”

Former Guiseley bosses Mark Bower and Steve Kittrick and ex-Halifax chief Jim Harvey could be among the candidates to succeed Meechan.

As Avenue seek to stop the rot and restore belief, Dean added: “We want somebody to come in, get the confidence of the players up and start to turn some of these results in our favour.

“There is still a long way to go – we have 31 league games remaining so there are a lot of points to play for.

“We need to strengthen in certain areas, get the players playing with confidence and hopefully the results will change.”

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