Bradford Park Avenue 1 Hucknamm Town 2; Hucknall Town's expensively assembled squad brought home the bacon in their opening game of the season but only after being pushed from base camp to breakfast by a shadow Park Avenue squad.

The Bradford side may have begun the UniBond Premier Division campaign with a home defeat but the way their severely depleted ranks tested the big-spending Nottingham outfit there was no cause for concern.

Avenue took the lead with the best goal of the game, conceded a fluky equaliser just before the break and were beaten by a Danny Bacon strike early in the second half.

"Under the circumstances I am not disappointed at all," said Bradford boss Trevor Storton.

"Let's face it my lads did well with a lot of big-game, experienced players missing. I don't want to talk about the players we had out because that would not be fair on the lads who came and did a good job.

"I thought we defended very well, so well that we couldn't even gauge how good our new keeper is. He had no shots to save all game, what crosses came in were dealt with and it was a quiet afternoon in front of our goal.

"Obviously Hucknall have won, good luck to them, and no one likes losing on the first day of a new season. But I'm not too down about it because of the performance of the team we had out.

"They tell me Hucknall are paying big money, for transfer fees and wages. I would back my first-choice team against them on the evidence of what I saw on Saturday."

It was a strange line-up for the home supporters to get behind. Three players were making their competitive debuts for Avenue and striker Mark Vickerage was playing his first ever UniBond game.

Having scored for the Bradford side in a West Riding County Cup tie last season he was not overawed and almost bagged the opener.

He took a long clearance from new keeper Matt Boswell on his chest and spun in an instant to fire in a good shot. It was too fierce for Town keeper Stuart Nelson to handle and Richard Tracey netted the rebound.

Just before the break a corner from the left was not effectively cleared and a second cross reached Avenue's area. The visitors' Nathan Winder could not control it but still got two touches, the second took the ball past the stunned Boswell.

Avenue gave possession back to Hucknall with a throw-in near the half-way line after an injury stoppage in the third minute of the second half and were not prepared for what followed. A through ball into the path of Bacon saw him cut into the area and score despite Boswell getting a piece of it. Avenue's Andy Wright is pictured challenging former Port Vale winger Jon McCarthy for the ball.