National North
Mark Bower says he is prepared to be patient with his recruitment as he builds his Bradford (Park Avenue) squad for the new National North campaign.
Avenue have kept a low profile on the incomings front as striker Jacob Blyth and Jamie Spencer are the only new arrivals at Horsfall Stadium so far this summer.
Because of past experience Bower will not be rushed into making signings as he looks to improve on last season’s successes.
“We probably have been quiet,” Bower told Non League Yorkshire.
“We have only brought two in as we speak.
“There’s a couple which are ongoing and have been going on for a while and we hope to get through in the next week or so.
“It is difficult.
“There’s plenty of money floating around in our league and above plus the two below.
“It has been a tough summer so far but we were probably guilty last year on going early on two-or-three players and maybe the ones we brought in later on had a bigger and better impact on the team.
“We have a couple of loan (moves) lined up and we won’t get them in until closer to the season.
“We have a few trialists in and I have been pleased with how those have looked.
“We just don’t want to waste the resources we have got and if it means missing out and going for another, that’s what we have to do.
“We still have a good core of the side from last season and I am pleased with the two we have brought in.
“But we need more than that and we’re trying our best (to recruit). Come the start of the season we’ll be ready and strong.”
Oli Johnson Simon Richman, George Sykes-Kenworthy, Mitch Lund, Harrison Hopper, Sam Fielding and captain Luca Havern are confirmed as staying.
Avenue have a host of trialists currently on the books.
A vast number played in the prestigious Bradford City friendly last Friday and a few will appear at Silsden tomorrow.
“We had 14 in the City game last week,” Bower said.
“Some of those have already left us.
“There’s others we wanted to look at on Thursday and Saturday but obviously it will be only Saturday now.
“We’ll be making decisions on a few of those probably early next week.
“We saw them one side of the game against City when we had to work without the ball and hopefully during this game at the weekend we’ll be able to see players in possession a bit more and causing problems for the opposition.”
One disappointment this week has been the cancellation of the Campion friendly on Thursday night.
Avenue are one of several victims of the debacle around the FA WholeGame system which has been down since the 1st July for annual maintenance – preventing a lot of clubs from affiliating for the new season, including Steeton.
The system was due to reopen on Wednesday but an email around midday added two more days to the timetable – leaving Avenue and a few other clubs high and dry.
Bower was unimpressed with the FA.
“It is frustrating because as the system is down we haven’t been able to get sorted out and play the game,” he said.
“That needs looking at.
“I’m not up to speed with the in’s and out’s of it and what needs to be done but ultimately there’s better way to do things.
“The system upgrade should have been done in June, not when everyone is playing friendlies and needs to be affiliated.
“We have numerous teams with the academy and we were making sure we were following the right procedures but by doing that we have left ourselves in a position where we have been exposed to the system being down.
“It is frustrating but we’re used to it in the last couple of years that pre-season gets disrupted.
“We’ll have a training session (last night) and hopefully we’ll be alright for the weekend’s game.”