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Reds aim to undo Bradford hoodoo

FC United take on their old rivals Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday at Gigg Lane and the Reds are hoping to break the Avenue hoodoo at the tenth attempt.

Despite many closely fought league and cup encounters over the last four seasons FC United have never beaten the West Yorkshire side and have a record which makes for uncomfortable reading - drawn three, lost six.

Besides the six defeats, BPA have become something of a bogey side for other reasons too; first by pipping FC United to the then UniBond Division One North title by one point in April 2008, just weeks later our all-time top-scorer Rory Patterson and fellow striker Stuart Rudd departed across the Pennines, and the following April saw Avenue hold the Reds to a 1-1 draw on the last game of the season which meant United missed out on the play-offs.

With all that in mind, United will be desperate to finally get one over Bradford. And there’s no time like the present. The Reds are playing with confidence again and returned to winning ways on Bank Holiday Monday with a 2-1 win against Ashton United. Margy is hoping that the good football played by the team will lead to more victories.

He said: “Obviously it was a relief to finally get a win again on Monday. It had certainly been a long time coming – almost two months since our last victory on that famous night at Spotland, though what with all the postponements that record’s obviously not as bad as it might sound.

“The Halifax result on New Year’s Day was definitely disappointing but it was the case that when we’d gone to 2-1 down that we needed to try and get something out of the game. Unfortunately, they scored two goals in the final few minutes when we were pushing on. That’s going to happen, I’m not saying it’s acceptable but there’s no way I’m going to sit there and be happy taking a 2-1 defeat.

“Looking forward to the rest of the season I still think we can get into the play-offs. I think Halifax have won the championship – they’re a strong side but also have the financial clout if they need to go and strengthen even more. Everyone else is in with a shout though – there’s going to be Matlock, Buxton, Kendal, North Ferriby all in the play-off mix and I’d put ourselves in that bracket as well. Hopefully we can live up to that billing.???

United almost have a fully available squad. Centre-back Scott McManus is back after missing four games through suspension although David Chadwick and Martin Parker have been playing well in his absence. Meanwhile, Ben Deegan is expected to be fully fit after shaking off flu and Carlos Roca is hoping to have done the same. Matthew Wolfenden will be hoping to keep his place in the starting XI though after two impressive displays so far in 2011, which were capped off by him scoring the winning goal against Ashton – his first for the club.

FC United versus Bradford Park Avenue is tis Saturday with 3pm kick-off. It’s pay on the gate with usual prices. Get yourself to that football ground.



First Posted ~ 16:57 Sat 8 Jan 2011
News ID ~ 3336
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021