BRADFORD Park Avenue's free weekend was used to good effect as the players got some much needed rest while others are nearer a return to action following extensive training.

Avenue are back in action today at Darlington and their last game was a fortnight ago, when they drew at home against Kidderminster Harriers.

They had free midweeks either side of last Saturday, which was an FA Cup weekend, and failed to find a suitable opponent for a rearranged fixture.

Horsfall boss Mark Bower said: "It was a little bit odd having a free weekend when the weather was fine because it's usually when it's rained for days or a frost has set in.

"We gave the players time off because we can trust them to do the right thing, look after themselves and do a bit of light training or running. To be fair, they are a fit group of players and they have worked very hard so far.

"It's funny because for us on the coaching and management side, we were out watching games, scouting, checking on opponents. We took in a couple of games, so it was a lot busier than usual for us.

"But the lads trained hard before last Saturday and they have trained hard again this week, while the players who are back from injuries but haven't had much game time from the bench got some good work in.

"The ones that haven't been involved much over the last few months benefited from playing in those training sessions and they're much sharper now than they were two weeks ago.

"We would rather have played a game last week to keep the momentum going but I think we made the most of the time we had in between games."

While Avenue were without competitive action, many of their Vanarama National North counterparts played in the FA Cup or had league games.

Bower's men lost a position in the table due to their unscheduled lay-off and head to 12th-placed Darlington in tenth spot.

"We have fallen behind a couple of teams – but that happens at this time of year," said Bower.

"It could be cup competitions or postponements. Going into the winter you are going to have teams in the division that have played more games than others. We've not played as many as some but that means nothing unless you win those games in hand.

"It's difficult to tell and we have a tough run of fixtures this month anyway with Darlington, Harrogate Town in midweek and then Salford City next Saturday before the first game of November, which is against Blyth Spartans.

"That means that after today we will play the top three in the next three games. That's a tough schedule and we'll need all of the squad, so it's good that we've had this time to have a little breather and refresh our minds."