BRADFORD (Park Avenue) midfielder Lewis Knight believes his side now have a squad more than capable of escaping their current predicament in the Vanarama National League North.

Avenue are deep in trouble, propping up the rest of the table 12 points adrift of safety.

Knight admits the writing was on the wall at the beginning of the campaign when Bradford went through two managers before finally recalling Mark Bower to take over the reins in October.

Since Bower's reappointment, a more settled team has formed, with the recruitment of players from last season's play-off side - but Avenue need to start picking up some wins quickly.

Knight said: "There was an attempt of a restructure at the start of the season, in terms of players we were bringing in, the manager, the budget - it just didn't work.

"If you look at the amount of players who have played for us this year, we have had 50,60 different players and when you can't get a team to gel, it is difficult.

"Right from the get-go, we knew we might be in a bit of trouble but you look at the team now and there’s a good culture about us.

"Although we are at the bottom you wouldn’t know being in the dressing room.

"There is more than enough in this changing room now. It is definitely mid-table (standard) and even could push for the play-offs."

"We have enough quality all the way through the pitch to progress. If we can cut out the silly mistakes, I think we will be able to do enough to stay up."

Speaking on his two-year spell at Avenue, the 21-year-old said: "I have loved every minute. It is a bit of a weird one saying that, knowing where we are this season.

"But last year was fantastic. We had an amazing dressing room, and I have learned a lot from this year in terms of myself.

"Last year was a real high and this year a real low and you are going to get that in your career. It has been a massive learning curve for me as a player."

There was some hope for Bradford last time out as they drew 3-3 with Southport, scoring more than one goal for only the fifth time in the league this term.

Bower's men host fellow strugglers Gloucester City in a six-pointer this weekend at Horsfall.

Knight amazingly netted from a corner in his team's trip over to Merseyside and admits this upcoming fixture with City is a must-win.

The forward said: "I thought we played really well (at Southport).

"It has been the story of the last few weeks conceding sloppy goals. When you take the lead twice, where we are we can't afford to concede the goals we do.

"We showed great character to come back after being 3-2 down. In the end it was a good result."

On his goal, he added: "The wind was against us so I thought I had to put a bit of extra power on it. Fortunately it just went all the way through, hit the post and went in.

"It is always good to get a goal no matter how it comes, I definitely didn’t mean it."

Knight added: "If we don’t get three points (against Gloucester), you are looking at it, saying 'where do we get the three points from?'

"The confidence will be there going into the game after scoring three goals. We now believe we can score goals. If we can take that into Saturday we have got a good chance of winning.

"I have been playing all right the last few games so hopefully I can carry on until the end of the season and we can get out of the mess we are in."