INFORM Bradford (Park Avenue) striker Jordan Preston isn’t getting too carried away with his side’s return to form.

After enduring an eight-game losing streak, the Horsfall side have picked up two consecutive league victories on the road against teams that they were perhaps expected to lose to.

With a game in hand, Avenue now sit only four points off safety, and they welcome Ashton United to Bradford today as Danny Whitaker’s men look to make it three wins on the bounce.

However, Preston admitted that, despite the recent confidence-boosting victories, he doesn’t want to jump the gun on deciding whether Avenue have turned around their fortunes.

He said: “I think it’s too early to say (whether Bradford have turned things around). Unless we stay up, then it’s an absolute massive failure of a season and even if we do stay up, it’s still a lot less than what we wanted to achieve at the start of the season.

“But what I can say is that, from the position that we were in after losing eight games on the bounce, these two wins having given us a platform and a belief to get out of this mess.”

He added: “They are (two victories) massively important to the group because they were two fixtures that, even if we were on form, would have always been difficult. So, to go to two tough places and beat them both, after losing eight games on the bounce, is a great feeling.

“A couple of wins change everything, in any environment for that matter. The team morale is a lot better than it was before, and I think the overnight stay at Workington helped with that because it allowed us to gel together for a longer period of time.

“We are beginning to feel a lot more settled as a squad now, particularly now we’ve got some momentum behind us.”

Avenue are expected to be without Jacob Lara (appeal dependent) at home to Ashton United today (3pm), after the midfielder was sent off on full-time at Workington last time out for allegedly using homophobic language towards one of the opposition players.

Preston, who shares the dressing room with Lara, believes that there might have been a misunderstanding regarding the incident.

He said: “I’ve spoken to Jacob about it and he’s adamant that nothing happened and that he didn’t say anything. He feels that the referee has misinterpreted what he said.

“That’s as far as it has gone on our end so far. I believe that there is an appeal going on, so until we hear back from that, then we won’t truly know what’s going on.”

Ahead of this weekend’s game with Ashton, Preston, who is beginning to hit some form alongside his strike partner Chinedu Osadebe, admitted that he’s enjoying his football at the minute.

He said: “I’m loving playing at the moment; I’m staying fit, I’m getting fitter and I’m getting a consistent 90 minutes in my legs.

“I feel that I can still go up a couple of notches, which is good because I know that I get stronger the more I play.

“Of course, it’s great to be scoring most weeks too, but I’m happier to be helping the team to get where we want to be.”

Kick-off gets underway at 3pm today at the Horsfall.