Bradford (Park Avenue) urged to push on after Rylands win

The side from Horsfall make the long trip to Cumbria today and will be looking for a second league win on the bounce – something that has been few and between this season.

Last Saturday’s impressive victory resulted in Avenue reducing the gap between themselves and safety to just six points, with all hope of avoiding the drop seemingly vanished in the lead up to the Rylands fixture.

However, with a chance to reduce the deficit even further at Workington today, Whitaker has urged his players to take heart from last weekend’s display.

He said: “I think the performance against Rylands had a bit of everything. We responded well to going a goal down; we also stuck to our principles right until the end and showed a real desire to keep attacking and fighting. We got our just rewards in the end and topped off a great display with a victory.”

He added: “It should give the group a lot of confidence because it’s not easy going to a team like Rylands. It just goes to show what this group can achieve if they continue to stick to the process.

“Likewise, it’s giving me even more belief that the players can take on board our instructions and way of playing. Yes, we have seen progress and some strong performances, but victories and points are what matter the most at the end of the day.

“We’ve now been rewarded for our hard work and endeavour with a victory, so to combine a performance with three points is even more pleasing and it’s now about using the confidence we gained from that to push on.”

Blackpool loanee Jake Daniels assisted Chinedu Osadebe’s winner on his debut last Saturday, as his wicked cross was powerfully headed home by Avenue’s striker to spark jubilant celebrations near the touchline.

Having witnessed the connection between the two players following Daniels’ arrival on the field, Whitaker admitted to being encouraged by what he saw.

He said: “It’s massive for us to have the forward players linking up in the way they did on Saturday. It’s a cliché but goals do change games.

“Thankfully for us, we have been scoring goals and creating chances since I arrived; it’s the goals that we concede that we perhaps need to eliminate from our game, but that will take time, we knew that when we came in.

“Attacking-wise, we’ve always continued to play front-foot football and we create lots of chances. As the project continues to develop too, we’ll see more relationships grow just as we saw with Jake and Chinedu on Saturday.

“It’s very promising for us in that regard.”

Jake Daniels is left as the last man standing, as Chinedu Osadebe sees the emotion of his late winner become too much (Image: John Rhodes)

Discussing what needs to change to prevent Avenue shipping as many goals, Whitaker said: “We can’t fix everything at once, it’s impossible.

“When you come into a team that is struggling, they’re usually struggling for various reasons. We wanted to come in and improve as many things as possible, but it can’t be done all it once; it will take time.

“We are where we are in the league and because of that, we might not be able to attract as many players as we’d like to into the club, whether that’s a midfielder or defender. We’ve looked to improve in the defensive department, but it’s not always easy, so it might improve this season, it might not. It’s a process.”

Danny Whitaker believes that it may take time for defensive solidity (Image: Martin Taylor)

Looking ahead to the Workington trip, Whitaker said: “It’s a very tough trip up there (Workington) and it’s a long distance to travel. Not only that, but the playing conditions won’t be great because of the weather, so we need to be able to adapt to that. We’ll see how much that factors into the game.

“We can only control what we do, so we need to be committed and ready to go in what won’t be an easy game. We should be full of confidence after last week so hopefully we can use that to our advantage.

“It’s important that we build on the Rylands match and don’t regress because it will make last week’s efforts not worthwhile. Momentum is key at this stage of the season too and getting a second victory in a week could prove to be massive for us.

“We haven’t picked up anymore injuries so we’re the same on that front.”