Post by otleybard on Jul 4, 2008 5:01:48 GMT 1
Our Unibond Premier Rivals...
No. 3 BRADFORD (PARK AVENUE)
The Facts:
Where they play: Horsfall Stadium, Cemetery Road, Bradford, BD6 2NG (11 miles from Nethermoor).
Admission 2008-09: Adults £6.00, ‘Seniors’ and Students £4.00, U-16s £2.00 or free if with Adult.
Final league position last season: Champions, Unibond Division One North.
Odds at Coral's: 5/1 joint favourites.
Home Kit: All Green according to the Unibond website, but the pictures on their own site indicate a rather fetching Green-and-White Stripe.
Change Kit: Presumably the amazing Red/Yellow/Black Hoops we’ve seen occasionally in recent seasons (think genetically-modified peppers). Anything that improves the players’ visibility at the Horsfall’s worth a try, although it must make blindside runs a bit tricky.
Manager: The much-trumpeted Dave Cameron, who took over from the equally-trumpeted but underachieving Benny Phillips part-way through last season and brought home the bacon. Has also registered himself as a player.
Highest home attendance last season: 1,264
Lowest home attendance last season: 278
Average home attendance last season: 508, the second-highest in the Division.
Home gate v Guiseley last season: N/A
Result at Home: N/A
Result at Guiseley: N/A
Website: www.bpafc.com
Forum: sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/bpasupportersgroup/ is either Official or Unofficial depending on which bit you read, but either way it seems more or less comatose.
bradfordparkavenwho.ipbfree.com has a lot more going for it, and provides the usual mixture of fact, conjecture, tub-thumping, humour, petulance, urine extraction and all-round good craic. Well worth a look.
Last few times v Guiseley:
Not much to go on really, due mainly to Avenue’s predilection for treating whichever Division, or indeed League, they’re in as the proverbial hot tin roof. The 2005-06 season was the last time we shared a table; they gubbed us 3-0 at Nethermoor, and we returned the favour 3-1 at the Horsfall. There’ve been a couple of Cup encounters in the last few years that I can’t be bothered looking up; memory says we’ve usually claimed the bragging rights, but it would, wouldn’t it.
News from the close season:
Where do we start? Even before they’d anything to shout about they were shouting, and since winning the League their larger-than-life Chief Executive Bob (‘The General’) Blackburn has made Simon Clifford sound like Harpo Marx. Signing the strikeforce of rivals FCUM looks a masterstroke, as does their competitive pricing policy (what is it with Bradford clubs?). Their acquisition of a job lot of tip-up seats from Lord’s is a publicity coup, and should provide a source of entertainment when one of their traditionally-volatile elderly fans sits down too quickly. There are plans for a new ground at Thornbury {on the edge of Farsley country) and in the meantime money and paint are being splashed about in equal measure. Silk purses and sows’ ears spring to mind, but anything that might drag the Horsfall into the twentieth century has to be laudable.
Who are we likely to recognize?
While their position as the Home For Aged Guiseley Players has been usurped recently, there are still a couple of familiar faces. Mark Bett (who in the pervading atmosphere of bigging up seems to have had an ‘s’ added to his surname) was of course tempted here last backend, and much-mourned he is. A recent arrival is our former long-serving goalkeeper John Lamb (or probably ‘John Sheep’ by the time we play them), signed from Droylsden to put pressure on another ex, the somewhat shorter-serving Jon Worsnop.
What we do think of them and/or how much do they annoy us?:
Not having played them that often’s prevented a genuine rivalry’s forming. The feeling at Avenue seems to be that City are still their true competition, and that the last forty years have been nothing but a blip in their quest to reclaim their spot as Bradford’s premier (with a small p) club. Until recently it was easy to dismiss them as a group of eccentric old gimmers rambling on about Kevin Hector, but that’s all changed. The noises emanating bring to mind the early days of Geoffrey Richmond at Valley Parade, and if similar success, however fleeting, arrives, the fans will understandably be bloody insufferable. Whisper it, but for the moment, anyway, Avenue are sexy.
Likely prospects this season?:
The $64,000 question. There’s a lot of new money in the Unibond Premier this year, along with a couple of clubs who’ve blown their old money and are starting again. The days of clubs dropping into the UP defeated, knackered, dispirited and in disarray have gone, for the time being at least. What we (and the leagues below us) are now inheriting are clubs who’ve lived the dream, flown too near the sun and taken their punishment; they’re reinvigorated, well-supported, more than a little resentful - and keen to mop up the cowering opposition. In the days of AFC Telford that was a given - though even they had their noses bloodied more than once. But this season, with several clubs expecting to win every game, there’s bound to be some disappointment. Avenue could well be contenders, though they might have to add patience to their portfolio.
Our own Forum members' views:
Add your own views, comments and predictions below...
Coming up Next: Buxton FC.
No. 3 BRADFORD (PARK AVENUE)
The Facts:
Where they play: Horsfall Stadium, Cemetery Road, Bradford, BD6 2NG (11 miles from Nethermoor).
Admission 2008-09: Adults £6.00, ‘Seniors’ and Students £4.00, U-16s £2.00 or free if with Adult.
Final league position last season: Champions, Unibond Division One North.
Odds at Coral's: 5/1 joint favourites.
Home Kit: All Green according to the Unibond website, but the pictures on their own site indicate a rather fetching Green-and-White Stripe.
Change Kit: Presumably the amazing Red/Yellow/Black Hoops we’ve seen occasionally in recent seasons (think genetically-modified peppers). Anything that improves the players’ visibility at the Horsfall’s worth a try, although it must make blindside runs a bit tricky.
Manager: The much-trumpeted Dave Cameron, who took over from the equally-trumpeted but underachieving Benny Phillips part-way through last season and brought home the bacon. Has also registered himself as a player.
Highest home attendance last season: 1,264
Lowest home attendance last season: 278
Average home attendance last season: 508, the second-highest in the Division.
Home gate v Guiseley last season: N/A
Result at Home: N/A
Result at Guiseley: N/A
Website: www.bpafc.com
Forum: sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/bpasupportersgroup/ is either Official or Unofficial depending on which bit you read, but either way it seems more or less comatose.
bradfordparkavenwho.ipbfree.com has a lot more going for it, and provides the usual mixture of fact, conjecture, tub-thumping, humour, petulance, urine extraction and all-round good craic. Well worth a look.
Last few times v Guiseley:
Not much to go on really, due mainly to Avenue’s predilection for treating whichever Division, or indeed League, they’re in as the proverbial hot tin roof. The 2005-06 season was the last time we shared a table; they gubbed us 3-0 at Nethermoor, and we returned the favour 3-1 at the Horsfall. There’ve been a couple of Cup encounters in the last few years that I can’t be bothered looking up; memory says we’ve usually claimed the bragging rights, but it would, wouldn’t it.
News from the close season:
Where do we start? Even before they’d anything to shout about they were shouting, and since winning the League their larger-than-life Chief Executive Bob (‘The General’) Blackburn has made Simon Clifford sound like Harpo Marx. Signing the strikeforce of rivals FCUM looks a masterstroke, as does their competitive pricing policy (what is it with Bradford clubs?). Their acquisition of a job lot of tip-up seats from Lord’s is a publicity coup, and should provide a source of entertainment when one of their traditionally-volatile elderly fans sits down too quickly. There are plans for a new ground at Thornbury {on the edge of Farsley country) and in the meantime money and paint are being splashed about in equal measure. Silk purses and sows’ ears spring to mind, but anything that might drag the Horsfall into the twentieth century has to be laudable.
Who are we likely to recognize?
While their position as the Home For Aged Guiseley Players has been usurped recently, there are still a couple of familiar faces. Mark Bett (who in the pervading atmosphere of bigging up seems to have had an ‘s’ added to his surname) was of course tempted here last backend, and much-mourned he is. A recent arrival is our former long-serving goalkeeper John Lamb (or probably ‘John Sheep’ by the time we play them), signed from Droylsden to put pressure on another ex, the somewhat shorter-serving Jon Worsnop.
What we do think of them and/or how much do they annoy us?:
Not having played them that often’s prevented a genuine rivalry’s forming. The feeling at Avenue seems to be that City are still their true competition, and that the last forty years have been nothing but a blip in their quest to reclaim their spot as Bradford’s premier (with a small p) club. Until recently it was easy to dismiss them as a group of eccentric old gimmers rambling on about Kevin Hector, but that’s all changed. The noises emanating bring to mind the early days of Geoffrey Richmond at Valley Parade, and if similar success, however fleeting, arrives, the fans will understandably be bloody insufferable. Whisper it, but for the moment, anyway, Avenue are sexy.
Likely prospects this season?:
The $64,000 question. There’s a lot of new money in the Unibond Premier this year, along with a couple of clubs who’ve blown their old money and are starting again. The days of clubs dropping into the UP defeated, knackered, dispirited and in disarray have gone, for the time being at least. What we (and the leagues below us) are now inheriting are clubs who’ve lived the dream, flown too near the sun and taken their punishment; they’re reinvigorated, well-supported, more than a little resentful - and keen to mop up the cowering opposition. In the days of AFC Telford that was a given - though even they had their noses bloodied more than once. But this season, with several clubs expecting to win every game, there’s bound to be some disappointment. Avenue could well be contenders, though they might have to add patience to their portfolio.
Our own Forum members' views:
Add your own views, comments and predictions below...
Coming up Next: Buxton FC.