Bradford Park Avenue will attempt to bounce back from a dismal FA Cup exit last time out when Nantwich Town visit Horsfall Stadium on Saturday.

Their two results in the Evo-Stik League prior to the cup tie were very promising and that is what made the 3-1 defeat at West Auckland so surprising.

Avenue manager Simon Collins is hoping to have more of his first-choice players to pick from this weekend.

He said: “Last week we had Martin Drury suspended, James Knowles injured and Marc Smith at a wedding. They were all badly missed from the team that I sent out at West Auckland.

“That is not meant by way of an excuse for our defeat because we should still have had enough quality about us to win up there. We are a couple of levels higher than they are and, no disrespect, a club from our league should win even without home advantage.

“We need changes to the squad, not the first 11 but obviously once you scratch below the surface we are just not strong enough. When we have injury problems or suspensions and we have to make changes, they have to be like-for-like changes in terms of quality.”

Avenue’s mediocre start in the Premier Division looked set for a sharp upturn when they came from two goals down to earn a point from a 3-3 draw at Worksop Town and followed that with a 4-1 victory over high-flying FC United of Manchester at home.

But just as they appeared to be gathering momentum, they fell flat on their faces with the costly FA Cup exit at the first hurdle.

Collins said: “It is frustrating because we go from the sublime to the ridiculous. We took on a team from the top in our league and put four past them on the Wednesday and it could easily have been more. Then three days later we play really badly against a team we are expected to beat.

“This week was all about getting the players in on the training ground and working closely with them. We had to work on what went right against FC United and analyse what went wrong against West Auckland.”

Drury’s suspension is now over and Smith is available again but there is still a doubt over Knowles. He was forced off in the second half against FC United with a knee injury.