Avenue's new reserve team manager cannot wait for the season to kick off.

Harvinder Makh is a well qualified, highly respected coach and has worked on the development of players for many years.

He does not have a high-profile playing career behind him but he has impressed

Avenue boss Carl Shutt.

"My ideas for Bradford Park Avenue involve making a natural progression from the Academy side to the first team - open doors throughout.

"If the players are good enough they should get their opening and I'm very keen to get going," said Makh.

The 48-year-old began his playing days with Salts and played in the non-league before turning to coaching. He has passed the UEFA B badge standard and has worked with various age groups at Halifax Town.

"I have done seven years at Halifax and coached players from the youth teams

right through to the reserves. I am not far from Horsfall Stadium and I was straight in there when Carl spoke to me about the job last month.

"I'm very excited about it but was nervous last week. Carl is away on holiday and I had to help out with the first-team training.

After a couple of minutes the nerves went, it all came back to me and I began to enjoy it.

"A lot of the second team and Academy players were missing, half of them are away on holiday or have work commitments - that is the same at any part-time

club at this stage of the season.

"But I'm looking forward to getting them in for a chat, telling them what we

expect from them and helping them make the transition into the first-team squad.

"We are looking to build a firm foundation for Avenue, new players are also welcome - this is not a club that operates with a clique mentality.

"I picked up on that with my first training session, they are a great bunch of lads who work well alongside each other. I think the experiences of last season and the eventual promotion brought them together as a unit." Makh is aiming to work closely with Shutt and the Academy coaching team to strengthen that bond.

"Bradford is a big city, it needs two clubs, Avenue are playing at a high standard, have good support, are just two leagues away from full time status and have a history. We need strong support from the local community, the council, local business and to attract the best players in the area.

"A lot of the criteria to achieve that is in place already and we have other ideas to forge links with local clubs and schools to make sure in continues but these schemes take time to get off the ground," said Makh.