Bradford (Park Avenue) facing biggest test in many years

The reformed version of the club are facing arguably their toughest on-field moment since those dark days exactly half-a-century ago.

After 62 years in the Football League, Avenue’s third consecutive rock-bottom finish in the Fourth Division spelled the end, as they were booted out of the Football League at the expense of Cambridge United in 1970.

The death of chairman Herbert Metcalfe in the October of that year was the biggest blow of all though, and the loss of his financial support slowly killed the club.

And after four Northern Premier League seasons with little to cheer, Avenue’s life ended with a whimper, as they bowed out for good with no money and a 21st place finish.

Now while money, and where exactly it is, has been a hot topic under Avenue’s current owner Gareth Roberts, any woes the club do have on that front pale into insignificance compared to those dark days of the early 1970s.

The Bradford-born Texan has been candid enough to admit matters such as the Covid-19 pandemic, being denied broadcast/streaming deals and rising energy costs have contributed to times being a little tight down at Horsfall over the last five years.

But with a healthy income coming in from the increasing numbers in their ever-growing academy, as well as tenancy agreements with the likes of Albion Sports AFC and West Bowling ARLFC, Avenue are on a healthy enough footing to boast “a top-four budget” this season.

Albion Sports pay rent to their landlords Bradford (Park Avenue) as do several other sports teams and clubs. (Image: Alex Daniel.)

Partly because of that, the club will head into the 2024/25 Northern Premier League East Division, which gets underway today, as one of the favourites for promotion.

But there is also real pressure on, because after two nightmarish relegations in a row, they owe it to their long-suffering fans to start giving them reason to cheer, after a bout of prolonged misery.

The club have not been below the level they are at now since 1995, while this is just their third campaign in the eighth tier since 2001.

Back in 1995, Avenue were trying to re-establish themselves at semi-professional level, having only joined the pyramid after reforming again in 1989, taking their place in the Central Midlands League.

And the only way was up, as they earned three promotions in 12 seasons to reach the NPL Premier Division around the turn of the century.

Avenue do have some precedent for their current situation, having been gone up to the sixth tier at the end of the 2003-04 campaign.

But they were not really ready for that leap up back then, only promoted due to the formation of the Conference North and South.

They only went up via a series of play-off games, having actually finished 17th the previous season in the NPL Premier.

Winning just five games all term in 2004-05, they were relegated by a mammoth 24 points.

And 2005-06 brought no respite, as they embarrassingly went down again, only finishing above Runcorn F.C. Halton, who folded at the end of the campaign anyway.

Déjà vu here anyone?

But the response Avenue showed from that moment onwards is one the current iteration of the first team would love to repeat.

A strong first season in the eighth tier was followed by an even better second one, as they won the title to bounce back into the NPL Premier Division for 2008-09.

And after a solid seventh-place finish then two agonising near-misses in the play-offs, Avenue got it right at the fourth time of asking.

Former Thackley and current Silsden striker Tom Greaves was the hero on May 6, 2012, scoring a 119th-minute winner in the NPL Premier Division play-off final to propel the BD6 side into the Conference North.

Tom Greaves, partially hidden, stretches to score the last-gasp winner that got Avenue promoted in 2012. (Image: Richard Leach.)

And here’s the thing, where Avenue were clearly not ready for sixth tier football in 2004, they more than held their own second time around.

They established themselves immediately by coming seventh in season one, then bedded in nicely as a mid-table side.

Mark Bower led them to the play-off semi-finals in 2017-18, while they were top at the turn of the year the following season.

But as former captain Luca Havern claimed, there was a dawning realisation that Avenue could not financially compete in the fifth tier and the side faded away over the next four years.

Even so, they were an established National League North outfit for ELEVEN years, so relegation at the end of 2022-23 still stung.

And even if many Avenue fans were not overly optimistic about the prospect of immediately bouncing back up, few could have foreseen such a pathetic 2023/24 campaign.

For a club that had been on an upward, or at the very least a steady, trajectory for the past couple of decades, Avenue have to get out of the spiral they are currently in.

Starting this afternoon, can they start working their way back up the ladder?