BRADFORD Park Avenue lost their first West Riding County Cup tie for three seasons this week – and irate boss Mark Bower launched a broadside, not at the competition, but its archaic rules.

Bradford were forced to field a patched up starting XI with an empty bench on Monday evening.

It was an unedifying end to the club’s proud run that saw them win the trophy, successfully defend it and then reach the semi-finals this term.

Bower fumed: “We’ve paid the competition a lot of respect over the last three years but we’ve got nothing back at all.

“I think that the rules of the competition need to be looked at. We literally had only 11 players that were fit and eligible and it turned the game into a farce.

"We had lads who were fit and could have played but the rules of the competition wouldn’t allow it, so they were forced to sit it out.

“I feel disappointed for the people who had to pay to watch that mismatch because they were short changed. We’re out of the cup now but that’s the least of it because we had lads playing on Monday who shouldn’t have been out there.

“There were three players that would have been nowhere near the squad if it had been a league game.

"Danny Boshell was at 50 per cent because of a hamstring injury, Emile Sinclair has been carrying an injury and wasn’t ready for a full game, and Sanchez Payne was being violently sick in the in the dressing room before the game and at half-time.”

Bower wanted to give the club’s supporters something to cheer – as his predecessors John Deacey and Darren Edmondson did in the previous two visits to Valley Parade – but he feels the opportunity was denied him.

The Bradford boss added: “It was very disappointing for me because I couldn’t do my job. I had 11 players, not a team but 11 players, so I was redundant.

“I think it's pure good fortune that those players made it through without further injury, which isn’t right. We should be helping each other, not putting players in that kind of situation.”

Bower believes that the County FA are disrespecting their own competition by hamstringing clubs with draconian laws.

He said: “I can understand it when players are cup tied. One of our keepers, Ed Hall, and James Knowles were among four players who had played for other clubs in the competition before joining us.

“That’s fine. Obviously they’ll be ineligible to play for us, but we had lads who were fit and needed game time who couldn’t play.

"I could have registered and put myself in the squad but I wouldn’t have been eligible because I hadn’t played any league games.

“I’m not asking for a massive overhaul of the competition, just a little re-jig.

"Non-league football isn’t what it was when the current rules were drawn up. It’s far more professional at this level now – so much rests on every game and it’s just as much of a squad game as in the professional ranks.”