MARK Bower hopes a mixture of experience and youthful exuberance can help take Bradford (Park Avenue) further in this season's play-offs.

Avenue face a trip north to Spennymoor Town for the first stage of the National League North extras tonight, having finished seventh at the end of the regular season.

It is the second successive time they have made it to the play-off eliminator, with the winners travelling to third-placed Brackley in Sunday's semi-final - just like Avenue did last year.

Bower proud of over-achievement to make play-offs again

Bower believes they'll be better for that experience 12 months ago when Bradford sneaked into the top seven, ironically at the expense of Spennymoor.

He said: "Having been in situations before and knowing what to do in those certain scenarios when certain things happen, that 'been there, done it' scenario can certainly help along the way.

"But, we've got a much younger squad now and quite a few of them won't have experienced it.

"Charlie (Andrew) in goal, the likes of Lewis Knight, Jake Beesley, Conor Branson even, people like that, it's their first taste of it.

"But, we've still got the likes of others in the team - Mark Ross, Luca Havern, Danny Lowe - people that have been there, done it before, bought the t-shirt.

"Hopefully they can use their experience to help others through.

"I'm hoping that the younger lads thrive on it and enjoy the occasion because quite often it can bring the best out of people."

Bower's side don't go into the Spennymoor clash in the best of form but have been in the top seven all season and the manager is determined that their campaign doesn't end tonight.

It comes after the club launched a cut-price season ticket deal, with adults costing just £100 regardless of whether Avenue can achieve promotion.

He said: "We've put in 42 games, we've grafted, we've done everything we possibly can to get in the top seven.

"There's no point doing that just to go and let it fritter away.

"We want to go as far as we possibly can.

"The club have shown great initiative with the season ticket prices for next year.

"If we can do that in the league above, that certainly is really appealing to everyone.

"It would be nice if we can improve on last year - we got through the first one but dropped out at the semi-final stage.

"We've improved our points tally from last season, let's try and go and improve on how far we get in these play-offs this season as well."

Spennymoor have been on the wrong end of two defeats in their league fixtures against Avenue this campaign, including a 2-0 away win for Bradford in March - the last time they won on the road.

But Bower is aware his side will need a fresh mindset and says Avenue caught Spennymoor at "good times".

He added: "The fact that we've been there and won only a few weeks ago should give the lads some confidence and belief that we're capable of doing the same.

"But, once we kick off it's all about who does their jobs better and wins the personal battles and performs better under that pressure on the night."

*Don't miss a kick in tonight's clash by following our live T&A blog from Spennymoor