A Mickey Mouse cup-tie at Horsfall Stadium will take on extra meaning tonight for both teams.

For Avenue it is a chance for some much-needed match practice and for visitors Eccleshill United, the return to Bradford of The Legend.

The West Riding County Cup quarter-final will see Eccleshill manager Tony Brown return to the club alongside assistant Dave Morgan, both former Avenue men.

Brown is one of the most respected players to have turned out for the UniBond club since reformation and he is hoping for a run-out tonight.

"Normally this cup game wouldn't mean that much," admitted Brown, who played alongside current Avenue players Wayne Benn and Jason Maxwell under Trevor Storton at the club.

"But playing Bradford Park Avenue gives it that little bit of spice. It makes the game a lot more interesting for us, particularly myself and my assistant Dave Morgan.

"We will have to get ready because we both are likely to play some part in the game."

It will Brown's first involvement against his old club and he is looking forward to it.

"I have nothing but fond memories of my time with Avenue," he continued.

"I think Trevor is a great manager and I still have a lot of time for the club and its fans.

"I do pop down there and watch them sometimes and say hello to the familiar faces.

"This is a big game for Eccleshill and there will be a lot of disappointment if it's off."

Brown, who has named a 16-strong squad for the derby tie, added: "We have no players cup-tied, none suspended and no new injuries."

For Avenue it will be an important opportunity to get in some game-time having only played three matches this year.

Sharpness looked to be returning on Saturday's visit to Gateshead but the side are still a couple of weeks away from the shape they showed at the back end of last year before the cold snap kicked in.

"Our positional sense was a lot better," said Storton. "But we are still not quite there yet, but how can we have been?

"Things are improving and we have now ground out two results from these games. We need to start winning again and get back up the table to where we were before the postponed games.

"We are still a couple of weeks off where we want to be but the Eccleshill game will be a nice chance to get some more game- time in."

Jason Maxwell looks set to return from his fractured cheekbone tonight.

He picked up the injury in a clash of heads at Accrington Stanley and his powerful presence has been missed by the Avenue front-line in recent weeks.