BRADFORD (Park Avenue) remain in the relegation places in the Vanarama National North but a 0-0 draw at home to Blyth Spartans in their sixth game earned them a second point of the season and it lifted them up one place.

Those were the positives from a goalless draw at home against Lee Clarke’s Spartans. The former Huddersfield Town boss is in a similar position to Bradford’s interim manager Marcus Law with an inexperienced squad.

Blyth were the only club below Avenue at the start of the day so the ‘Avey Army’, the core of the home supporters, had begun to believe they would see their side get their first win of the campaign.

There were four new signings leading up to the game - Marcus Wood (former Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers development player who was with Southport last term), Riccardo Calder (former Aston Villa academy player), Myron Gibbons (on loan from Doncaster) and Joseph Chidyausiku (who played at Havant &Waterlooville last season). The first three of them started while Chidyausiku was on the bench.

In the first half the Avenue defence looked much stronger than it had in recent weeks. There were also some promising attacking build-ups that led to some excellent crosses into the area, but despite that, it was Blyth who looked more likely to break the deadlock.

The second half was also low key with Avenue keeper, captain Rhys Taylor, making just one save while his opposite number, Spartans’ stopper Nathan Harker, was even more under-worked.

Law was pleased with the improvement but realises that his squad is still very much a work in progress. The interim boss said: “I thought there was an improvement and in that first half we had most of the chances, I would certainly say we had the better ones.

“I was very impressed with Marcus (Wood). In there as the defensive midfielder in front of the back line, he protected the central defenders and he distributed the ball well.

“I thought Riccardo Calder also had a great start, they couldn’t cope with him, especially in that first half. He kept getting around their defence and his delivery was good.

“The rest of the lads did what they always do and worked hard, we can’t ever question their effort. So it was a very positive first half but the longer the game goes on it becomes a difficult one.

“You are wondering, do we sit back a bit and protect the clean sheet and get another point or do we go and look to go for all three but risk losing. The clean sheet is massive for the confidence of these players after the start they had before we arrived.

“We had a late chance which could have seen us nick three points but then so did they, so a draw was probably a fair reflection of the game as a whole.”

Avenue are back in action tomorrow when they head to 11th-placed Darlington.