BRADFORD (Park Avenue) boss Mark Bower has said the return of injury-hit defender Danny East is like a new signing, following the departure of Ben McKenna.

Bower also reiterated that it's by doing the simple things Avenue will be able to get a win against a tough Brackley Town side this weekend.

Avenue broke a run of three defeats in a row on Saturday with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Blyth Spartans.

But, a win for top-of-the-table rivals Stockport saw Avenue drop from second to third and they now sit behind the precious top spot by eight points and a game in hand.

After the draw, Bower believes it's a matter of time before his side's fortunes improve.

He said: "Nobody’s been getting carried away, you look at the last five games, we’ve only taken two points, but the performances in those games have warranted a whole lot more.

"So, what we’ve been preaching is really just keep those levels of performance up, keep creating the number of chances that we are doing in games and we’ll get back to winning games sooner rather than later."

Avenue visit a Brackley side who haven't tasted defeat since before Christmas and are pushing towards the play-offs, but Bower said he hadn't felt an urgent need to make drastic changes in training.

He said: "Brackley away is one of the toughest ones you play all season so we’re expecting a really tough game. Last season they finished third and won the FA Trophy and obviously they’re coming good again this season, in good form later, so it will be a tough one."

He added: "We’ve just been drilling into the lads to keep creating the number of chances that we’re creating and things like that then we’ll start putting them away again.

"I think we’re just about top scorers in the league going into last weekend’s game so if we keep creating the chances, no doubt we’ll start taking them again and when we do that obviously it gives us a good chance of starting picking up wins again.”

Bower's preparations have been boosted by the return of defenders Danny East, from injury, and Luca Havern from suspension.

The boss described the pair as being like new signings, which comes after the announcement on Friday last week that Ben McKenna - who made 41 appearances in his second spell at the club - had left for league rivals, Chester F.C.

Bower said: "We’ve only signed one player since the season started, we've probably been the least active team in the transfer market in the whole league this season.

"But, we’ve been doing well in the league and we’ve not struggled too much with too many injuries and this weekend we’ve got the likes of Danny East – who’s trained for the last couple of weeks – coming back into the squad and Luke Haven back from suspension.

"As it stands, we’re always looking to see what we can do with the squad, but at the minute we’re ok as we are, we feel."

There are no fresh injury or selection concerns for Bradford coming into this weekend's game.

Bower said: "Obviously there's good options to have when you’ve got everyone available. Hopefully we can get the right team on the pitch and get the win."