Bradford & District | Archive | 2005 | January | 12
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Wednesday 12th Jan 2005.
There was more postponement misery for Bradford Park Avenue last night when their Conference League Cup second-round tie at Stalybridge Celtic was called off due to a waterlogged pitch.
Avenue have now played just one match since the 4-2 home defeat to Hucknall Town on December 18.
Bradford boss Carl Shutt knows his players need match fitness but he still has injury concerns. "I am massively relieved it was off to be honest, I have had a bad day," said Shutt.
"Our captain Dean Jones reported back still unfit, Ryan Crossley could not get off his shift with the Fire Brigade and Ashley Scothern rang me at 3.30pm - just an hour before we were due to meet - to rule himself out.
"I got a call at about 4.30pm and that was ten minutes after the pitch inspection so you can imagine, I wasn't too disappointed. We will look
towards Saturday now and hope we can pick up some points up. The cup is on the
backburner again."
No new date has yet been set for the tie, the winners of which have home advantage over Halifax Town in the next round.
Avenue will be hoping Saturday's trip to Moor Green doesn't fall victim to the weather.
The initial clash at their relegation rivals was abandoned at half-time with Avenue leading 1-0 through a Ben Jones goal after ten minutes.
That was way back in October when Moor Green were below Avenue in the table.
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