National North
Mark Bower says Bradford (Park Avenue) are a club transformed on-and-off-the-field and the future is exciting.
Bower and his assistant Danny Boshell have signed new contracts, extending their deals to the summer of 2026.
The pair returned in late 2019 for a second stint in charge and they inherited a car crash situation on-the-pitch.
Slowly but surely they have turned the club around in the National North whilst the club have made great strides with their off-the-field masterplan.
Bower says Avenue have built solid foundations.
“We’d like to see progression (by 2026) and us being able to compete further up this league and see of the young players we have helped push on playing at higher levels,” Bower told Non League Yorkshire.
“We want to see the club attracting more fans and having bigger crowds. We had just short of 650 for the first game which at this time of year is not bad.
“We’d like to see ground improvements so we want the whole thing to be a better experience for everyone involved.
“I certainly think that since Martin Knight came in a couple of years and told us the longer term plan and we decided to be part of it (back in 2019), things that have been put in place are bearing fruit.
“The academy looks stronger and the facility around the ground looks much better and I certainly feel we have a better team on the pitch than we did two years ago.
“The Juniors as well. You go on a Monday night and there’s hundreds of kids using the facility.
“We’ve certainly taken some good steps in the first two years and hopefully we can grow in the next three and we can start getting academy players in the first team and hopefully be capable of competing with the bigger teams at this level or above.”
Avenue’s off-the-field project is a template that others will use in years to come.
Horsfall Stadium for years was an elephant in the room for the local council until Texas-based chairman Gareth Roberts was able to deliver his vision – beginning with the 3G pitch.
At the same time it has allowed Avenue to grow as a club and to be more than a first team.
“We used to be on the pitch for a home game every two weeks and 300 or 400 people would turn up and that would be it for a couple of weeks,” Bower said.
“People are engaged with the club more.
“The junior section is growing all the time and more people know about the club.
“The name is getting out there.
“You go round Bradford and there’s still a lot of people who don’t know anything about Bradford (Park Avenue).
“There’ll be more than there was this time two years ago and in another three there’ll hopefully be many more with a connection to the club.
“When I played at Bradford City 15 years ago the average crowds in League One were seven or eight thousand.
“All of a sudden there’s another ten thousand fans turned up from somewhere because they have marketed it really well.
“You could probably get a season ticket for Avenue and City now for less than it would 15 years ago.
“There’s an appetite for it and I certainly think if we can have a good whole club offering where the facility is good and the coaching is good then I think we’ll attract more and more people to the club.”
Bower’s contract news came hours after the 1-1 draw at Kettering Town where Adam Nowakowski’s equaliser earned them a point – their first of the season.
Avenue lost to King’s Lynn Town on the opening day and Bower said display-wise he was happy with the start.
“I think we played a really good team in King’s Lynn in the first game and matched them,” he said.
“It was a very even game and we had more possession and penalty box entries – those sort of stats.
“That little bit of full-time quality turned the game for them so it was disappointing to lose but a positive start and I thought it was a positive performance.
“Saturday at Kettering…the weather and the pitch we were playing on made it a different football game to what we will be playing in for the majority of the season.
“It was so difficult to pass the ball and run with it and it became a real battle.
“We conceded a really poor goal, one of the worst I’ve seen us concede and in those conditions you did fear the worst.
“Credit to the players they responded and we got a reaction.
“We knew we’d get a chance in the game and we had a couple of half-chances before the goal.
“We worked the ball well to Adam and he has that snack of making something happen and he finished it well.
“We definitely deserved a point from the game so probably disappointed with the points tally so far but in terms of how we are looking and the squad in general we’re pretty pleased with where we are at but we know there’s more to do.”
Avenue were relatively quiet during pre-season on the recruitment front as signings were few and far between.
However, Bower believes playing the waiting game has paid dividends.
“We are pleased with the lads we have brought in,” he said.
“We looked at the 16 we took to Kettering on the first game of last season and when we compare the 16 to the 16 we named on Saturday, we certainly feel we look far stronger.
“That’s not just in the starting eleven but in the squad depth as well.
“Players cost more money in May and June and it is more expensive to get business done then when we’re working to a tight budget and we have to get the best value we can.
“We have found that holding out a bit longer stretches our budget further and allows us to get good quality in so we can compete.
“We feel we have got the balance just right this time.”
An example of holding out for quality is last week’s stunning capture of Bradford City youngster Reece Staunton for an undisclosed fee.
“We have been chasing Reece for a few weeks and the question we asked ourselves was ‘do we hold on to get someone like a Reece Staunton or do we get someone now who is not quite as good but comes in earlier for our first game’,” he said.
“The experience of last season of being able to add some real quality during the course of the season was better than what we were able to do in the summer (of 2021) in many respects.
“That experience maybe led us to take that decision.
“We have got Reece in and he’s a very good player and we feel him playing men’s football on a regular basis will help him improve his game to make him a really, really good player.
“It is an eye-catching signing and it has only been made possible because Reece has made some sacrifices and maybe his two loan spells have made it more attractive to him.”
Avenue visit Scarborough Athletic this evening.
Former Scarborough and Leeds United manager Neil Warnock will be in attendance.
Warnock, then the Bury boss, famously bought goalkeeper Paddy Kenny from Avenue in the 1990s.