Bradford Park Avenue 2, Stalybridge Celtic 1: To lose one goalkeeper may be considered a misfortune, to lose two would be regarded as carelessness.

But Avenue overcame the curse of the No1 shirt and their third man in the net, a 40-year-old outfield player making his first appearance of the season, saved the day and then significantly helped grab the winner.

An 87th-minute Simon Collins header gave the home side the points on a bizarre day of missed chances, goalkeeping misfortunte and unlikely heroes against the UniBond Premier's third-placed team.

Trevor Storton's men made the worst possible start to the day when keeper Chris Howe, for the second time in his career, fell awkwardly in the warm-up and had to be whisked off in an ambulance with a suspected broken ankle.

Jamie Holmshaw, down as a substitute, was promoted to the ill-fated shirt while assistant manager Ian Thompson, banished from the touchline for assaulting a linesman when these two sides met earlier in the season, was added to the bench.

Unfortunately Holmshaw contrived to stand on the ball in an embarrassing attempt to keep it in play during the first-half and failed to come out after the

interval.

Thompson, who twice had to play emergency goalkeeper for his previous club Frickley, the most recent occasion being four years ago, put his hand up and was summoned to the nets.

And he attained hero status when at 1-1 he saved a one-on-one against Celtic's leading scorer Phil Eastwood and then, with just three minutes remaining, dropped a free-kick on to the head of Collins for the winner.

"I Schmeichel-ed him," said a bouyant Thompson after the game, referring to his miraculous block to save the game.

"I just made myself as big as possible and the ball hit me on the thigh. And then with the free-kick I just put it on Simon's head - he didn't even have to move."

But truth to be told, the antics of the larger-than-life assistant boss should never have been required as Avenue were guilty of some horrible misses throughout the match.

Celtic, despite their lofty league position, played as badly as the home side had done last week when losing to relegated Welsh side Colwyn Bay, and Bradford were the dominant side for most of the 90 minutes.

Andy Hayward, Danny Walsh and Collins could all have put the game beyond doubt well before Thompson's heroics were called for.

Avenue took the lead when a Walsh short corner was flicked on by Robbie Painter for Hayward to bang in from close range after 20 minutes.

Walsh then missed an open goal, side-footing over the bar after a rare involvement from an out-of-sorts Jason Maxwell had set him up. After the break, Avenue continued to dominate without truly threatening former Bradford man Craig Dootson's net.

But in the 74th minute a Painter mis-kick from a corner allowed the visitors to break and Colin Potts finished the flowing move with a curling strike across Thompson to equalise.

Hayward then hit the underside of the bar and had a shot deflected wide before Thompson pumped forward a free-kick for a confusing off-side and Collins was there to head home at the back stick.