Bradford Park Avenue have suffered a major blow in their preparations for tomorrow's FA Cup third qualifying round at UniBond Premier Division rivals Marine.
Avenue will have to travel to Merseyside without recently signed keeper Craig Dootson because he was not signed seven days before the date of the tie.
"It's very frustrating," said assistant manager Ian Thompson. "I know we signed him on October 5 because we had the FA Cup tie in mind when we did the loan deal with Leigh RMI.
"But it seems there has been a clerical error. The registration forms faxed through to the FA have the following day's date on them. That means he misses out even though the FA received the forms on the right day.
"Gavin Kelly will be back in goal for us and we know he is more than capable. Good news is that Mark Hancock came through 20 minutes of a comeback at Farsley Celtic on Tuesday and will make his first start for a month.
"But on the down side Paul Wharton has had a set back with his knee injury, Ian Richards is struggling and all this before one of the most important games for the club this season."
With Dootson and Wharton definitely sidelined German keeper Lutz Phannenstiel comes back into the squad and two of the Academy side are due to be drafted in. Alex Davids and Ashleigh Townsend are the most likely to be included as they have already featured in the first team squad.
Farsley Celtic are also in FA Cup action and will fancy their chances of reaching the next round because they have opponents from a lower league in Northern Counties East Premier Division champions Brigg Town.
Centre back Lee Connor, who made a comeback from a three game ban in Tuesday's 2-0 home defeat against Avenue in the UniBond Cup, will act as stand-in skipper in the continued absence of the injured Paul Stevenson. Damien Henderson and Chris Newton are recalled to the starting line-up after both were rested for the Avenue derby clash, as will Simon Brooker who was unavailable.
Park Avenue (from): Kelly, Phannenstiel (gk), Quinn, O'Brien, Lindley, Stansfield, Thompson, Hayward, Benn, James, Nazha, Calcutt, Hancock, Richards, Maxwell, Townsend, Davids.
Farsley Celtic (from): Sutcliffe, Brennan (gk), Brooker, Cuthbertson, Shaw, Connor, Gray, Shields, Place, Hepworth, Henderson, Newton, Regan, Smith, Spence, Lamb.
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