BRADFORD (Park Avenue)'s long trip down to King's Lynn last night proved to be worthwhile, as they earned a shock 1-0 win to give themselves a glimmer of hope in their battle to avoid the drop from the Vanarama National League North.

Avenue looked down and out after a 2-1 home defeat to relegation rivals Gloucester City on February 8, but after a month of postponements due to the bad weather that has swept across the country, they have come back with a bang.

Their 2-1 win over Chester at Horsfall on Saturday, courtesy of goals from strikers Tom Clare and Oli Johnson, was impressive, but the challenge was to maintain those kind of results.

And there would have been long odds on doing so on their visit to Norfolk last night. King's Lynn went into the match second in the table, but with four games in hand on leaders York City, who were only two points clear at the summit.

But belief is a powerful tool. Clare, who has struggled to find the net since joining Avenue in November, was seemingly inspired by his fourth goal of the season against Chester, and put away his fifth last night.

The hosts had the majority of possession in the opening quarter, without creating any big chances, and the big striker, who used to play for Bradford City, made them pay on 26 minutes.

Clare fired in a shot which took a slight deflection and nestled perfectly in the bottom corner to give the visitors the lead.

Stung by that, King's Lynn struggled to break down a heroic Avenue defence all game.

Mark Bower's men were indebted to a brilliant goalline clearance from Cypriot full-back Stelios Demetriou on 76 minutes though, and were thankful that the normally deadly Adam Marriott fired a great injury-time opportunity over the crossbar.

But Avenue held on, and 11 points from safety with 10 games to go, could the great escape really be on?