BRADFORD (Park Avenue) 1-3 Spennymoor Town

Three penalties in one game is quite a rare sight at any level of football. Yes, you could point to Leicester City's recent 5-2 win at Manchester City in the Premier League where the Foxes converted a trio of spot kicks.

But, when was the last time you saw a player take all three and only score one?

With Bradford (Park Avenue) leading 1-0 in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup, Spennymoor Town's Glen Taylor fell victim to this terrible statistic.

However, the frontman certainly did not have this on his mind as he left the soaked newly fitted Horsfall 3G pitch.

Mark Bower started the day with a fully fit squad in the club's first competitive outing of the season, a fact that would not stand true come 4:52pm.

Sole striker Lewis Knight was a constant threat in the early exchanges. He saw one effort blocked before curling another past the far post.

The pacey forward did break the deadlock on the half hour mark. Jake Hibbs found him with a defence splitting pass which was met with a calm finish into the bottom corner.

On several occasions, Dan Atkinson flapped crosses but his shot-stopping can not be questioned.

The 24-year-old tipped Mark Anderson's strike wide with his feet, and then in the second half stopped Jason Kennedy's strike from eight yards out.

As Bower's men were about to go into the break ahead, Adam Nowakowski pulled down Kennedy in the box. Taylor, who has scored over 100 goals for Town, stepped up and blazed wildly over the bar. Lucky Avenue!

Ex-Bradford boy Jamie Spencer entered the fray at half time and by gosh what a difference he made.

From early on, you could see that the hosts were more than happy to defend from their 18-yard line. Something that would come back to haunt them.

That lack of an attacking threat resulted in balls being lumped up to the compact figure of Knight.

Avenue were night and day away from the elusive, tenacious football they showed in the first period.

The pressure was definitely started to tell as another penalty was conceded. Captain Luca Havern did brilliantly to clear Taylor's header off the line before Spencer was brought down.

Surely the prolific Taylor could not miss again? Wrong, the 30-year-old produced a tame strike straight into the hands of Atkinson.

11 minutes from the end, Taylor finally got his goal, poaching at the back stick from a Stephen Thompson corner.

Immediately after Town scored again. Another former Horsfall regular Ben Mckenna ran the length of the pitch and found Thompson who finished well.

Park Avenue's afternoon got worse when Havern limped off to join Nicky Clee and Isaac Marriott on the casualty list.

Mark Ross found himself on the wrong end of an "absolute joke" decision according to Bower as he tripped Taylor in the area.

With his teammates urging him to take it, it was third time lucky for the striker who smashed it past Atkinson.

Concentration lapses must be avoided if Avenue are to get anything from Monday's league opener with Gateshead.

PLAYER RATINGS

AVENUE: Atkinson 7, Ross 5, Lund 6, Havern 6, Downing 6, Nowakowski 7, Clee 6 (Bradley 59'), Hibbs 6, Marriott 7 (Windass 72'), Dockerty 5 (Johnson 66'), Knight 7. Subs not used: Fawcett, Hussain, Henderson, Lyons, Bradley, Johnson.

SPENNYMOOR: Eve 6, Hornby-Forbes 6, Buddle 7, Boon 7, Blakeman 6 (Spencer 45'), Kennedy 7, Anderson 7, Thompson 7 (Hall 85'), Ramshaw 6, Mckenna 7, Taylor 9. Subs not used: Moke, Norton.