Kettering Town 4 Bradford (Park Avenue) 0

BRADFORD (Park Avenue) are at the foot of the Vanarama National League North table after a heavy loss at Kettering Town who were the only club below them before kick-off.

The Poppies had a new man at the helm after appointing former Guiseley manager Paul Cox last Thursday and the new boss bounce did the trick as they humbled a poor Avenue.

Avenue manager Mark Bower had the look of an embarrassed man in his post-match interview. He said: “Firstly I’d like to apologise to all of the people who put their time and effort in to follow us and paid hard earned money to watch, because we have given them absolutely nothing to take home with them.

“We didn’t show any quality whatsoever, in any department.

"It was the worst performance from an Avenue side that I have ever been involved in. We were woefully bad.

“We’ve had three games (since Bower returned for a second spell in charge) when the lads have done well and given us everything they’ve got and worked hard but we didn’t put a shift in today.

“We knew that they would be coming at us from the first minute with the new manager coming in and the bounce.

"We knew we’d have to weather a bit of storm early on, we never did that, they got a foothold in the game and never showed any quality and didn’t give ourselves any chances to get back into the game.

“It was nowhere near good enough in any department and it’s been a real eye opener for us.

"When the third one goes in from a free-kick we lot all discipline, had no shape and were just woeful.”

The Poppies opened the scoring on the quarter hour mark following a break from an Avenue free-kick.

"Some excellent passing led to Daniel Nti putting the ball into the six-yard box and Lindon Meikle applied the close range finish.

Avenue had one attack of note in the whole of the first half and it almost brought them level.

Alex Hurst latched onto a header down and his driven shot took a deflection but home keeper Paul White’s lightening quick reaction saw him pull off a superb save.

Early in the second half Kettering’s first corner of the game led to their second goal as Connor Kennedy headed the flag kick home.

Just after the hour mark Avenue skipper Keith Lowe fouled Aaron O’Connor and the resulting free-kick was curled into the bottom corner by Ben Milnes.

Avenue’s former top scorer Oli Johnson has been training with the club as he recovered from injury and he was in the squad on Saturday.

He came off the bench for the last 30 minutes and almost marked his return with a goal, he deftly steered the ball past White but an offside flag curtailed celebrations.

Avenue keeper Joe Green’s day was capped off when O’Connor sent him the wrong way from the spot as a 78th-minute penalty wrapped up the scoring.