ALBION Sports manager Rizwan Mohammed sees the club’s move back to Bradford and the Horsfall Stadium as the first step, telling the T&A the dream is to have their own place to call home.

Founded in Bradford in 1974, their move from amateur football to the semi-professional ranks in 2011 saw them upgrade facilities by ground sharing with Bradford (Park Avenue) at Horsfall.

But that deal only lasted for two seasons, and Albion moved into Throstle Nest as Farsley Celtic’s tenants in the summer of 2013, where they remained until this week.

But a deal has been struck for Sports to play at Horsfall for at least the 2023/24 season, and while that delights Mohammed, he wants more.

He said: “About 90 per cent of our lads are from Bradford, and so am I, even though living near Pudsey, I’m maybe actually closer to Farsley’s ground than Avenue’s.

“But our club badge says Bradford and we’ve played in Leeds for 10 years, so it’s great to be going back home.

“We’ve been working hard on developing the infrastructure here of late, and we’re conscious that only ourselves and Wakefield in the Northern Counties East League don’t have our own ground.

“We’re obviously working out plans at this stage, but we’d hope to have our own place to play in in 12 months’ time.”

It is hardly surprising that is Albion’s ultimate ambition, given the obvious complications of ground sharing.

Mohammed admitted: “That’s what killed us at Farsley, because we were the only side in the league playing four times a week at the back end of last season after cancellations in the months before.

“It’s just not physically possible, so I was having to rotate the side constantly, and our results dipped because of that.

“We made a bit of progress in the FA Cup, got to the League Cup quarter-final and the West Riding County Cup semi-final too, so we were always chasing our tail.

“In truth, I was a bit disappointed with the league, because they extended the season for a few other sides and we never got that opportunity.”

Avenue are used to ground sharing, with West Bowling ARLFC playing their home games on the artificial surface at Horsfall too.

Hopefully that should make the transition to BD6 easier for Albion, who were laying the groundwork for this move months ago.

Mohammed said: “I’ve had a lot of conversations with Cal Cullen (Avenue’s operations manager and club secretary).

“When the league put our fixtures to us, we realised there was a clash when us and Farsley both had a home game, so we knew we’d have to move.

“I got in touch, we played that home game at Horsfall against Garforth in mid-February, and Cal and I have kept up that open line of conversation.

“It’s a massive stage for us to play on and it’s great to be back in Bradford as I said, as it’s where the club built its reputation.”

In terms of the football itself, Mohammed is buoyed heading into the 2023/24 NCEL Premier Division season, after the side bounced back from a rocky period.

He said: “My first-team coach Greg Beswick left to take charge of Goole early in the season, so that was a difficult period, November to December time, when I was basically running things by myself.

“I even had a ban for two games, so there was no-one on the touchline to lead thing.

“But I brought (former Albion joint-manager) Ishy Hussain back to the club at the end of December as my assistant and that helped us get organised.

“I think we went nine games unbeaten at one point in the second half of the season, but the table was deceiving before then.

“It looked like we were in relegation danger, but we had plenty of games in hand.

“We’d targeted mid-table before the season and we managed that, but in the end we were disappointed not to make the top-10, it was just the backlog of games that killed us.

“Coming 12th was respectable, and I’d say it was a positive season.”

There is extra incentive for next term too, with Mohammed explaining: “They’ve changed the promotion structure, so while we’re targeting the top-10 again, we want the play-offs, as it’s now the top five, not just second place.

“I thought it was harsh on (third-placed) Emley last year that they didn’t get a chance to go up, and Winterton (who came second) had to go to Essex for their inter-step promotion play-off, which fortunately they won.

“In the league below, Horbury got the chance to upset Harrogate Railway in the semis and have that experience of a play-off final.

“At our level, it was often only one side going up, so it’s good they’ve made that change, and it’s going to be a difficult, highly competitive league next year.”

Mohammed predicts the move to Horsfall will help Albion though, saying: “There’s no point being in football if you don’t think you can win things and I really think we can grow and develop next season.

“With us moving to the 3G surface at Avenue, it will suit a certain type of player, but about 90 to 95 per cent of the lads are keen to stay and play on there.

“I feel we can strengthen the squad for next season too.”