It was another roller-coaster campaign at Horsfall Stadium and Avenue could be forgiven for having a manager of the season category at tomorrow night’s presentation evening after four men sat in the hot seat.

They began the campaign with a good but inexperienced manager and ended it with a very good and very experienced boss.

Dave Cameron was in charge last August in his first role as a manager after being a player-coach at Principality League of Wales outfit Rhyl.

The big Scot, a no nonsense centre forward in the lower divisions of the Football League in his playing days, felt he had come too far too fast and resigned.

He had guided Avenue to the UniBond League Division One North title in the final months of the previous campaign but found life as a manager difficult.

The decision by Cameron to call it a day in November came so suddenly that goalkeeping coach Gary Stokes was placed in caretaker charge.

Avenue owner Bob Blackburn and the board of directors knew who they wanted to replace him. That man was Lee Sinnott, who had just been sacked by Port Vale after less than a year in the job.

Because of a contractual wrangle with the Coca-Cola League One club, Sinnott was not immediately available.

John Deacey – Sinnott’s number two at Farsley Celtic, who succeeded his mentor – had recently been removed from his post at Throstle Nest and he came in as Avenue’s new manager.

When Sinnott was freed from his gardening leave by Port Vale, he assumed command at Horsfall with Deacey reverting to assistant.

It was an ongoing saga that frustrated everyone and ultimately had an effect on Avenue missing out on the play-offs by the narrow margin of just two points.

Sinnott and Deacey, with the continued backing of the ambitious board at Avenue, are already plotting an all-out assault on promotion to the Blue Square North next season.

Meanwhile, the club’s end-of-season statistics revealed two notable achievements.

The maximum number of appearances possible was 50 (42 league and eight cup) and goalkeeper Jon Worsnop was the only ever-present player.

And in the goal-scoring stakes, Mark Bett’s 24 was the highest tally by a Horsfall player since Andy Hayward notched 31 in the 2001-02 season. Avenue scored 90 in total, of which 74 were in the league.

Appearances (+ substitute): Jon Worsnop 50, Chris Hall 41+3, Mark Haran 41, Mark Bett 32+8, Darren Hockenhull 28+2, Stuart Rudd 27+4, Rory Patterson 22+8, Matty James 20+2, Chris Bettney 20+1, Chris Stabb 20+1, Roy Stamer 19+7, James Knowles 17+1, Steve Connors 15+2, Jamie Price 15+1, Mark Hotte 14+7, Carl Ruffer 14+1, Tom Claisse 13+7, Mark Whitehouse 13+7, Stuart Graves 13+2, Stephen Downes 13, Andy Campbell 12+1, Tom Baker 10+4, Stephen Bushall 10+2, Ged Murphy 9+7, Tom Birch 9+1, Luke Holden 7+1, Danny Warner 5+2, Kyle Lambert 5+1, Amjad Iqbal 5, Lee Stratford 5, Luke Gibson 4+9, Matt Morgan 4, Andy Salm 4, Danny Davidson 3+2, Raphale Evans 3+1, Chris Fisher 2+2, Mike Moseley 1+7, Stephen Hollingworth 1+2, Jamie Bairstow 1, Dave Cyrus 1, Rob Morgan 1, Korey Nix 1, Reuben Wiggins-Thomas 0+7, Craig Thompson 0+4, James Scales 0+2, Duane Bywood 0+1.

Goal-scorers: 24 Bett; 16 Hall; 12 Patterson; 6 Campbell; 5 Connors, Rudd; 4 Holden; 3 Haran; 2 Davidson, James, Stamer; 1 Claisse, Cyrus, Gibson, Moseley, Murphy, Ruffer, Whitehouse, Heath (Frickley), Pacey (Matlock).