NORMALITY will return to Horsfall Stadium today as Bradford Park Avenue’s FA Trophy home tie against Stourbridge kicks off at 3pm.

Avenue’s previous three home games all had early kick offs after one of the six floodlight pylons at the Horsfall Stadium was blown down during storm Brian.

Avenue manager Mark Bower insisted that it had not hampered his side’s preparations for any of the games.

Bower said: “I’m glad to be back to the regular starting time but it hasn’t had any affect on the way our players have approached any of the games.

“The top players in the Premier League kick off at all kinds of different times and they just get on with it.

"The game has changed massively for semi-professional players, and clubs, and our players are professional enough to adjust their schedules.

“If anything it might have even disrupted the opposition more than anything because it’s them who had to do the travelling and set off an hour and a half to two hours earlier than they would have.”

Three Vanarama National North fixtures were affected against Salford City, Blyth Spartans and Brackley.

Bower said: “We did well in those games, all against sides in the top three of our league, but I think it’s good for the fans to revert back to the normal kick-off time.

“I don’t know if it made any difference to the attendance but I know that the supporters of the club have jobs and things to do on Saturday mornings. I also know that they like 3pm kick offs for Saturday games.”