BRADFORD (Park Avenue)'s fixtures have been revealed, with manager Mark Bower saying the new season feels "more real now".

He did admit that it was a blow to not have fixtures against big rivals York City and Guiseley any more though.

Avenue start at home to freshly-relegated King's Lynn Town, and face promoted Scarborough Athletic in August too.

They have lengthy treks to other new boys Banbury United and Peterborough Sports, while there is a Boxing Day and New Year double header with Farsley Celtic.

Bower said: "It's unusual for us to be at home in the first game, and it does feel more real now the fixtures are out.

"It's worked out that two of our first three fixtures are against new teams, so it'll be good to face them after three years of playing similar sides."

On those additional long away trips being added to the calendar, Bower said: "Ideally we'd not be doing as much travelling, but that's the nature of the teams at this level.

"With the two-league feeder system there's not much we can do, unless they made it a three-league system below the National League.

"But it's what we signed up for, so we'll just put in the miles required."

As for those lost fixtures, Bower said: "I'd just said to the club secretary about York and Guiseley, because when you look for the fixtures, they're a couple of the bigger ones.

"But they've been replaced by good ones like Scarborough, who were obviously a big club in the Football League in their previous guise.

"There are still big clubs with impressive stadiums and stages to play on, so while it's a shame to lose those local derbies, we've got other games to look forward to now."

Only one team went down last season, whereas there will be four this time around.

Bower said: "It's more of a challenge, and the first goal is to stay in the division.

"The teams that have come up look well-equipped to compete financially and challenge those that finished higher up last year.

"There's some unknown quantities in those teams that have come up or down, and we'll probably need those first 10 or 12 games to get a gist for where everyone is at.

"But we have to concentrate on ourselves, and if we can perform to the levels we had in our good spells last season, we hope we can meet our first target and then raise the bar."

Avenue's first friendly was at home to Bradford City last Friday, and Bower said: "It was a really good night, with a massive crowd.

"The game itself, we spent a lot of time without the ball, but I thought our new signings and trialists equipped themselves well.

"We'd not had much training, so I was pleased with the application.

"I'd have liked us to show a bit more in front of goal, but we were playing a very good League Two outfit.

"The night showed off the club well, and I spoke to a few City fans afterwards, who really enjoyed their evening.

"I hope the match was of benefit to both us and them, and that it's one we can enjoy for years to come."

Avenue had 14 trialists playing in that City clash, and they may only have one more chance to properly prove themselves, against Silsden on Saturday, after tonight's friendly at Campion was cancelled due to the relevant paperwork for Avenue not being processed.

Taking to Twitter to explain why, Avenue's director of football Martin Knight said: "Apologies for the cancellation.

"This was due to a decision taken by myself to give our successful academy as much time as possible to recruit more students.

"This sadly ran into the County FA being unavailable to submit our paperwork.

"I made a decision, so that part is on me, the FA website is down to the FA, so that’s partly both.

"If I had made a different decision or if the FA website hadn’t been down, either would’ve solved the problem."

Back to the trialists on show last Friday, Bower said: “A few of those that featured against City did themselves no harm.

“We’ll have a practice game at training and then at Silsden we should have more of the ball than against City, so we’ll see different aspects of their game.

“We’ll probably look to make a decision on a few of them after the weekend, though a few have already left us after last Friday.

“Some are going to suit us, some won’t quite be what we need.

“Some of our best performers over the last few years have come through the trialist route.

“It’s about giving these players a chance then making the right decision on them moving forward.”