Boss seethes as Avenue hit rock bottom

11:44am Sunday 23rd November 2008

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Bradford Park Avenue 0, Witton Albion 2

Witton Albion ended an 11-match losing streak in the UniBond Premier Division with a comfortable victory at Horsfall Stadium that left Avenue boss Dave Cameron seething.

The visitors had come to Bradford to face a side who had got their promotion tilt back on track after a blip. They hoped to hold out for a draw but helped themselves to a maximum courtesy of Avenue’s ineptitude.

“That was an embarrassment – how can you play that badly against the bottom of the league?” asked Cameron moments after storming out of the dressing room.

“I can’t stay in there with them because there will be some serious falling out if I do, so I will take time to settle myself before confronting them at training. Some of them would have been hoping for a night off. Not a chance!”

Avenue face the short trip to local rivals Guiseley on Tuesday for a UniBond League Challenge Cup third-round tie.

What was a low-key clash in an internal competition will now take on far more significance after Guiseley also lost 2-0 yesterday.

Avenue’s weekend defeat was far more of a shock because of Witton’s lowly placing and dreadful recent record. Albion will claim they deserve credit for taking maximum points but in truth it was their Christmas present a month early.

It started to go wrong for Avenue in the fourth minute when Mark Bett, filling in up front for Chris Hall – who was unavailable due to his part-time acting job – pulled his hamstring and had to be substituted.

Just after the half-hour mark, home keeper Jon Worsnop, making his 70th consecutive league appearance for Avenue, came out to challenge Witton striker Lee Thompson. The ball squirted wide of the goal but the danger was not over.

The referee awarded a penalty to the visitors and followed it up by showing Worsnop a yellow card. Thompson himself placed the ball on the spot but the Avenue keeper redeemed himself by diving to save by the foot of his left-hand post.

The visitors still led by the interval, breaking the deadlock from open play in the 42nd minute. Neil Black was unmarked, although there was a hint of offside, when he received a through ball and he raced clear to fire in under Worsnop’s body.

More problems for the home side ensued as new signing Tom Claisse, making only his second appearance, failed to emerge for the second half, Stuart Graves replacing him.

Five minutes later it was 2-0 to the visitors. Left back Matt Morgan gave away a silly free-kick outside the area, Mark Smyth delivered the ball to the far post and Ashley Dunne bundled the ball over the line after a double ricochet off Worsnop.

Cameron said: “It was a total embarrassment. My players will get me the sack by playing like that. I won’t let that happen and there will be mass changes if needs be.”

Meanwhile, Avenue’s reserves host Hyde United in the Lancashire League at Horsfall Stadium tonight (7.45).

Third-placed Avenue will be looking to close the gap on top two Guiseley and Farsley Celtic.