BRADFORD PARK AVENUE A.F.C.

It’s difficult sometimes amidst the glitz and glamour of the premiership to remember that the vast majority of clubs have more red ink on their bank statements than black.

Many teams, some of them once big names in the game and in the case of Accrington Stanley a founder member of the league, fall from grace and from time to time they drop out of the league all together or even go to the wall.

My first experience of the unglamorous side of professional football was in 1970 when I was fourteen years old.

Bradford Park Avenue who although not ever one of the big boys was once a well-known name in the game heard the final whistle blown for the last time as a league club.

 

They began life as Bradford Association Football Club forming in 1907 but in order to distinguish themselves from another football league team, Bradford City AFC, and rugby leagues Bradford Northern RLFC they incorporated the name of their ground, Park Avenue, into the team name and so were Bradford Park Avenue born.

Association football as well as the handling game of Rugby league had been played at Park Avenue since 1895 but with “soccer” already being successfully played at Manningham, by Bradford City, on April 15th, 1907 a meeting was called off the club members to decide the best course of action for the future.

After much debate, a vote was called and by a narrow margin the decision was made to follow the path of association football.

 

The club applied for membership of the Football League on 31 May 1907 but were unsuccessful and so they contented themselves with entering a team in the North Eastern League instead, However in February 1908 Tottenham Hotspur resigned from the league and Park Avenue were accepted into the Second Division in their place.

Once they had been accepted into the football league The Park Avenue club became a limited company and they played their first Football League game at home to Hull City, winning 1-0.

In 1909 international football came to the Park Avenue ground with a match between England and Ireland and it was in that match that Irishman, Sam Burnison, became the first player to win an international cap while at the Bradford club.
In the 1912-13 season the club reached the FA Cup Quarter-Final and then they finished as runners-up in division two that season beating Arsenal on Goal Average to win promotion to the topflight.

At the end of 1914-15 season Bradford Park Avenue finished in 9^th position which was to be their best ever.

Following the First World War Avenue reached the FA Cup Quarter-Final again in the 1919 - 20 campaign but were relegated at the end of the next season.

The season following that saw the club’s fortunes taking a further turn for the worst with immediate relegation to the 3rd Division (North) narrowly failing to bounce straight back being beaten into second place by Nelson.

In the 1924-25 season they finished as top scorers with 84 goals and the season after they again finished as runners up.

Bradford Park Avenue set a Football League record they still hold today while in the Third Division (North), in the 1926-27 season the Avenue won 25 consecutive home games.

A change of fortunes came however at the end of the 1927-28 saw them promoted to division two again as champions were, they remained until the Second World War intervened.

 

One of the players that graced the Avenue side was Jack Crayston who went to Arsenal in 1934 were he became an England international and after his career was cut short by a serious injury, he turned his hand to management eventually returning to Highbury as manager. 

Undoubtedly the greatest player ever to have worn an Avenue shirt was Len Shackleton, who scored a club record 171 goals he went on to play for England in 1946 and was transferred to Newcastle United the same year, scoring six goals on his Newcastle debut.

Another notable Avenue player of the early postwar years was Ron Greenwood, later to become manager of west ham and then England.

When the full league program resumed after the second world war in the 1945-46 season Avenue reached the FA Cup Quarterfinal for the third time and despite notable successes in the competition in 1948 when they beat Arsenal 1-0 at Highbury, and they drew with the eventual winners Manchester United at Maine Road only losing after a second replay it actually proved to be there swan song.

The 1949-50 season ended with them again relegated to the third division and the beginning of the long slow decline.

At the end of the 1955-56 campaign, they had reached rock bottom literally and had to apply for re-election to the league and Two seasons later after having finished in the bottom half of division three (north) the club became unwilling founder members of the new 4th Division for the 1958-59 season.

It was in their third season of fourth division football when they put in a dazzling run of six consecutive wins to finish fourth and earned themselves promotion, but the revival was short lived as two seasons later they went down again.

It was at this time that Kevin Hector arrived at the club and claimed a regular place in the side, and it was to be his goal scoring which was to sustain the club over the next few seasons until his move to Derby County.
while Kevin hector had gone on to greater things Avenue ended the next season bottom, a position in which they were to remain for two more seasons until the league turned down their application for re-election and replaced them with Cambridge United.

 

So, after 62 years in the football league, it was now to the Northern Premier League that the club turned to for its salvation and with virtually a complete squad of professionals they were hoping for a quick return to league status but it was not to be.

After three years of poor results and mounting debts they had to sell Park Avenue in April 1973 to a property company.
Avenue then moved in to ground share at Bradford City’s Valley Parade ground but with results not improving the board announced the club would stop playing at the end of the season.

On 3 May 1974, the shareholders agreed to liquidate the company and Bradford Park Avenue were no more - or were they.

The supporters registered the name as a company and began again in the Bradford Amateur Sunday League Division Four.

 

Over the last thirty years Avenue have slowly clawed their way via a procession of minor leagues to reach the Premier Division of the Unibond League and as a result the club has regained the position it occupied when it first ceased playing professional league football in 1974.

How long will it be before Bradford Park Avenue again take their rightful place and play in the football league?