BRADFORD Park Avenue boss Mark Bower is in the middle of shaping the squad he inherited, so he is glad to see the fixture list thinning out over the next two months.

The former Bantams skipper was expecting to make a new signing before tomorrow's trip to FC United of Manchester, and more will follow.

Bower said: “We are certainly looking to add more players to the squad sooner rather than later.

“That was glaringly obvious last week when we were down to our last 16 fit players for the game against Stalybridge. We had Luke Dean suspended, Adam Nowakowski injured and Danny Boshell out.

“Luke and Adam are back in the reckoning but tomorrow's game has come around just a little too quickly for Danny. He worked in training this week but you just can’t rush these hamstring injuries, and the grade of tear that Danny had was quite serious so it was always going to take time.”

Bradford’s threadbare squad lost narrowly at home last week and the defeat dumped them firmly back in the basement of Vanarama National North.

Bower feels that the slump has bottomed out, however, and that his side will begin to get the results that they deserve and will climb the table.

He knows that he needs to add quality and knows that his key players have to remain fit but he is convinced that with more than half of the campaign remaining he will steer Park Avenue out of danger.

Bower said: “There have been more outs than ins over the last few weeks, so we do need players but they have to be the right ones - we won’t sign people just for the sake of it.

“And we don’t want the games coming around thick and fast. I think that led to last Saturday’s defeat because we had played tough games on the Saturday and then Tuesday and it took a lot out of the available players.

“There are no midweek games in the run up to Christmas so that will give us more time to work with the players.

"We have been able to look after the squad this week with no midweek game so they’ve had the right amount of recuperation and fitness work.

“But we do need that work with them in training after what we’ve seen over the last few games.”