Matlock Town 1, Park Avenue 2 - Park Avenue set up a mouth watering UniBond League Challenge Cup final against Accrington Stanley with a hard-earned victory in this tough semi-final at Matlock.

Premier Division rivals Avenue and Accrington beat division one sides to reach the final of the UniBond League's showpiece event. The appearance of the famous old adversaries will bring added interest.

A Roses derby between the former Football League rivals is sure to stir wide interest.

"We are there, we are in the final and against Accrington Stanley which should make it a well supported game," said Bradford boss Trevor Storton.

"They need to pick a good venue for this one because it's a game that can't be ignored. It's too big for that, with the right ground it will bring in 1,500 to 2,000 spectators."

It could yet be a remarkable double winning season for Avenue because their next game is also in the latter stages of a prestigious knockout competition.

Storton has to bring his players back down to earth before tomorrow's semi-final in the West Riding County Cup.

The manager knows facing neighbours Farsley Celtic on their own patch will be even more difficult than Saturday's tough battle.

"That will be another game and a half, you can throw the form book away when Avenue and Farsley meet and they have home advantage," added Storton.

"But we have proved we can dig a result out. We had to against Matlock. To be fair they missed a few chances in the second half and let us off the hook a bit, they scored in injury time and you are always aware of what might happen then.

"A team gets their tails up right at the death when you are only one goal in front, it's un-nerving. You just want the final whistle to go, it was always going to be a difficult game especially in the conditions. We had wind, rain, sleet, snow, everything.

"But we got the win because we played well, we deserved to be leading by more in the first half. We turned round and to be honest the wind has caught us out a bit. On balance I think it was a fair result, we weren't lucky but we were unconvincing in the second half."

It should have been all over at half time with Avenue 2-0 up and cruising but it was the archetypal game of two halves. However, the result was never really in any doubt and Matlock had gone down to ten men, keeper Kevin Tye seeing red after bringing Lee Potter crashing down, minutes before they snatched an injury time consolation.

Avenue stunned the home side with a two goal burst in the final three minutes of the first half. They opened the scoring in the 42nd minute, a freekick from Andy Hayward caused panic in the Town defence and Micky Thompson fired in the loose ball.

Potter claimed a super solo goal just into stoppage time. He latched onto a through ball, skipped past Danny Barrett and drilled a rasping shot past Tye from inside the area.

It was Barrett who grabbed his side's late goal, bundling the ball over the line in a goalmouth scramble, but by then Avenue were home - if not dry.