AFC Fylde vs Bradford Park Avenue

Monday 11th April, 2016, k/o 7:45pm

Kellamergh Park

Vanarama National League North

AFC Fylde will be hoping to bounce back from the disappointing 3-2 home defeat at the hands of North Ferriby United at the weekend.

Ferriby went two goals ahead before Dion Charles pulled one back for the Coasters on the stroke of half-time. Ferriby restored their two goal cushion after the break and although Sam Finley made it a tense final few minutes, the visitors held on to leapfrog Fylde up into second place.

The defeat was made all the more frustrating after Matty Hughes had a goal wrongfully disallowed in the last minute for offside. The Coasters are now third in the league standings with just four games to play. 

Bradford Park Avenue find themselves precariously close to the drop zone, however they have played less games than any other team in the league and therefore have a catch up period.

This week could prove a big one in their season as they faced four matches in just seven days, which started with a trip to Boston United on Saturday. They were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by the Pilgrims and are now just three points above the relegation places.  

Another away trip here this evening is swiftly followed up by a relegation dogfight against basement club Corby Town before a home match against similarly placed Worcester City.

Despite looking forward to a successful season, Avenue have found themselves struggling at the wrong end of the table for much of the campaign and the powers that be decided it was time to act and replaced manager Martin Drury with former Barrow boss Darren Edmondson late last month.

Edmondson made an immediate impact and the club won the first game under the new management regime, defeating Chorley by a single goal at the Horsfall Stadium. They followed that up with a fantastic home victory over promotion hopefuls Harrogate Town just five days later. However they have now lost three on the spin against Solihull Moors, Worcester and Boston.

Tonight’s match was originally scheduled for the end of last month but was abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch with Fylde leading 1-0 through Danny Rowe’s penalty kick.

Team news:
Dave Challinor: “Adam’s (Sumner) gone over on his ankle so we’ll have to see how he is. There’s no fracture but he’s tweaked some ligaments. Crains came in and did well. We had to bring him off towards the end looking ahead to tonight’s game so we could make sure he was fully fit after not playing for a while. We need to look after Crains at the moment as he’s the only left back we have unless we bring someone over from the right hand side.

NLN fixtures:
Tonight
AFC Fylde v Bradford Park Avenue
Tomorrow
Hednesford Town v Worcester City
Nuneaton Town v Harrogate Town
Stalybridge Celtic v North Ferriby United
Wednesday
Bradford Park Avenue v Corby Town

Recent form:
AFC Fylde: D-W-D-D-L
Last result: AFC Fylde 2-3 North Ferriby United 
League position: 3rd

Bradford: W-W-L-L-L
Last result: Boston United 3-0 Bradford Park Avenue
League position: 16th

Last meeting: Bradford Park Avenue 1-2 AFC Fylde, 19/08/15, National League North

Admission:
Adults £12, concessions £9, under-16s £5.
Members: adults £10, concessions £7, under 16s FREE.

Matchday information:
>Limited car parking is available at the ground on a first come first served basis.

>Also available is the match day 50/50 which is growing in value by the week and gives you the chance to win a big cash prize!