Bradford (Park Avenue) 2v1 Gloucester City
Blue Sq.Bet North
Saturday 13th October 2012
The destination
for this year’s Non League Day was West Yorkshire, and a much delayed visit to
a famous old name of English soccer; former Football League club Bradford Park
Avenue.
Non League
Day now takes place on international weekend every year in October, when there’s
no top level fixtures taking place. The simple concept is to give football
supporters an alternative football experience and encourage fans to lend their
support to local clubs at grassroots level, which is something more rewarding and enjoyable than being
obsessively engrossed with Premier League/Championship clubs.
Bradford is
situated in the foothills of the Pennines, which became a municipal borough in
1847, before receiving its charter as a city in 1897. The name derived from the
Old English “brad” and “ford” - the broad ford referring to a Saxon settlement
at the crossing of the Bradford Beck at Church Bank, below the site of Bradford
Cathedral, which was recorded as "Bradeford" in the Domesday Book.
Bradford
rose to prominence in the 19th century as an international centre of textile
manufacturing, flourishing during the Industrial Revolution becoming the
"wool capital of the world"
The textile
sector in Bradford fell into decline from the mid-20th century. Since then it’s
became a popular tourist destination, becoming the first UNESCO City of Film
with attractions such as the National Media Museum, Bradford City Park, Cartwright
Hall and the Alhambra theatre. Plus I must mention it’s a great city for a
decent “Ruby Murray” – crowned “Curry Capital of Britain” last year.
The original
Bradford Park Avenue formed in 1907, out of the Bradford FC rugby club (founded
1863) in what is known as "The Great Betrayal" after abandoning the oval
ball game for Association Football. The club took their surname from the Park
Avenue ground, immediately joining the Southern League replacing Fulham, who
had been successful in joining the Football League after Avenue’s FL application
failed.
In 1908 they
were elected to the Football League Second Division and won promoted to the
First Division in 1914. They finished ninth in their debut season in the top
flight, the club’s highest ever league position.
From 1921
Bradford suffered consecutive relegations down to Third Division North, but won
promotion back to the Second Division as champions in 1928. The club were
relegated again in 1950, and then placed in the Fourth Division after the
re-construction of the Football League in 1958. There was more promotion and
relegation campaigns in the 1960’s, but after several years of struggle, they
were voted out of the Football League and replaced by Cambridge United in 1970.
The club
ended up in the Northern Premier League, their financial plight resulted in the
sale of the Park Avenue ground and having to share with Bradford City at Valley
Parade in 1973. The club went into liquidation in May 1974 with heavy debts,
but immediately re-formed as a Sunday league club playing in the former club
colours.
The Sunday league side played at Bingley Road and Hope
Avenue in 1974, before shifting to Avenue Road from 1975. Meanwhile all the
stands and other buildings at Park Avenue were demolished in 1980, with only
the playing field and terraces remaining. The rundown stadium was made
available for amateur football in the mid-1980s, with the Sunday team playing a
full season at their spiritual home in 1987–88, before being forced out to
allow an indoor cricket school to be built on part of the land.
The new
Bradford Park Avenue FC formed for the 1988–89 season, when they joined the
West Riding County Amateur Football League. The club progressed to the Central
Midlands League, then the North West Counties, playing matches at various rugby
league grounds in the area until moving to the Horsfall Athletics Stadium in
1995, when they won the North West Counties League.
The club took the Northern Premier League Division One title
in 2000-01 and became founder members of the Conference North in 2004. Since
then they’ve been relegated twice, but have returned after achieving a second
promotion last season after beating F.C. United of Manchester 1–0 in the
playoff final.
I spend the afternoon with Squad#155 James Little who had
travelled down from Edinburgh for the game. As well as bagging new football
grounds, James also collects football clubs and he is currently in pursuit of
viewing all post-war clubs that have ever appeared in the Football League. He
told me last season that he would try and catch Bradford Park Avenue at Blyth
Spartans, but I put him off that idea and encouraged him to join me on a day
out at the Horsfall Stadium.
I arrived in Bradford Interchange at 1.30pm and met James for
a couple of pre-match bevvys in the JDW Turls Green pub in the Centenary Square.
I was quite impressed with Bradford as a city but I have to say that the local
transport is crap. The club website advertises a free bus to drop you off near
the ground, but no such thing arrived in the half an hour we stood at the bus
concourse. Instead we intended to catch the 2.20pm 681 service, which arrived
over a quarter of an hour late, meaning we got to the ground just in time to
hear the referee blow his whistle to start proceedings.
The ground is approximately 2.5 miles south-west of the city
centre (15 minutes on the bus) and is also currently home to Bradford Airedale
Athletics Club and Albion Sports. It was originally built as a running track in
1931, before being upgraded for football with Park Avenue’s arrival, with major
improvements and building work in 2007.
The 5,000 capacity stadium is found at the bottom of
Cemetery Road, where on entering the ground you find all the amenities;
clubhouse, toilets, snack bar and an excellent club shop. If you haven’t visited
the Horsfall try and arrive early, as the club shop has a huge range of
programmes and football memorabilia for sale.
The main stand is named the Ronnie Bottomley Stand, having 1,247
white seats with the club initials picked out in green which came courtesy of
the Lord's Cricket Ground. Although the ground has a running track, the view
from the stand isn’t too far from the action, as there are only six lanes which
are tight between the pitch and stand. The stand has a green roof and supporting
pillars with terraces flanking both sides. The team dugouts are in front of the
stand with the changing room building at the opposite side, which also has an
upstairs press room.
The rest of the ground is hard standing with binocular views
behind each goal and is nicely finished off with a perimeter wall in the club
colours, which adds that extra bit polish to the stadium. The record gate is
2,100 for an FA Cup first round tie against Bristol City in 2003.
Bradford were up against Gloucester City (The Tigers in Conference
NORTH – ridiculous!...Eddy) looking to make it four wins in a row. After making
a positive start, they deservedly took the lead in the ninth minute. Paul Walker,
looking suspiciously offside, ran on to a sublime through ball from Alex Davidson,
who kept his cool to fire home under the ‘keeper’s body.
The visitors could have been dead and buried, but showed
great spirit to get back into the game. On the half hour mark they equalised after
a mad scramble and a comedy of errors in the goalmouth, allowed Darren Edwards
to poke the ball home, and then a minute later they should have been ahead. The
Avenue failed to deal with a long punt up field, resulting in a clumsy
challenge just inside the box from Hotte, and from the spot-kick former Heed
goalie Tim Deasy got down to deny Edwards a quickie brace.
The match was an open entertaining affair which could have
gone either way in the second half, but it was the hosts who clinched the three
points on 71 minutes, when a through ball from Holland found Richard Marshall,
who should some neat play to turn the defender and fire home from the edge of
the box.
After the match we
jogged up the hill to catch the 681 bus back to the town, which was only five
minutes late this time, but much quicker on its return, back in the city centre
for ten past the hour. This gave us ample time to visit the other ‘Spoons pub,
the strikingly impressive Sir Titus Salt before I caught the 1750 to Leeds on
route home.
This season I’ve managed to attend a game every Saturday at
a new ground, stretching back 14 weeks from the 14th July, sadly
this run had to come to an end sometime and this enjoyable day out in west
Yorkshire is my last new’un for a couple of weeks, giving me plentiful time to charge
up the laptop and the camera batteries before I’m on my travels again.
Matchday Stats
BPAFC 2(Walker 9 Marshall 71 )GCFC 1(Edwards 29)
att.405
Admission £10
Programme £2
Ground no.331 Horsfall Stadium - Matchday Web Album (21 pictures)
