BRADFORD Park Avenue will face another early kick off next week as work continues to repair the floodlight pylon that collapsed during Storm Brian.

Today's game with National League North promotion chasers Salford City has a 1.30pm start and next Saturday's clash with Blyth Spartans has been brought forward to 1pm.

The club and Bradford Council are working together to get the repair work done as soon as possible so that the club can return to normality.

Mark Bower is unperturbed by the re-scheduled kick-off times, the Avenue manager said: “It won’t affect our preparation for the games at all because it’s a Saturday and we’re usually travelling somewhere by then.

“Being a part-time club is a hindrance so many times but it doesn’t cause us any problems on a Saturday.

"It doesn’t matter what time the kick off is home or away at a weekend because we can work our schedule around it.

“The Premier League clubs kick off at lunchtime on a Saturday or a Sunday and they just get on with it so there’s no reason why we can’t.

"It only affects us when we’re playing full-time clubs like Darlington, Salford and Harrogate on a midweek night.

“Last Tuesday we really struggled in the first half hour at Harrogate and you could tell that our lads had been at work that afternoon while their players had had their feet up resting before the game. But we did okay after that and earned a draw against the leaders which could have been more if we’d put our chances away.”

The storm damage could have caused Avenue more problems had the pylon fallen into the ground, a section would have had to been closed off to the public or games could have been postponed due to health and safety issues.

It could also have caused serious injuries had there been more people in Harold Park when it came down.

Bower said:, “We’re just thankful that no one got hurt. It fell onto paths in the park and if there had been anyone strolling through or any people walking dogs there could have been a very nasty incident. Fortunately the only damage is to things that can be repaired.

“We don’t have any home midweek games scheduled and we’ve been drawn away in the County Cup so there’s no great rush to get it sorted. It’s just a bit of a set back and the latest in string of unfortunate events.

“Steve Drench is out injured with a bad back because he had car accident on his way to training last week. We’ve had bad luck on the pitch and off it recently but it is what it is so we just get on with it.”

Avenue’s community and operations manager Jayne Spencer said: “Unfortunately we’ve had to bring kick-off times forward and next Saturday’s is even earlier because the clocks go back this weekend.

“The Blyth game is also our British Legion Poppy Day so we hope it doesn’t affect the attendance, hopefully if we get the message out in plenty of time it won’t.”