Bradford Park Avenue 3, Netherfield Kendal 0; by Ian Whiting.

A hat-trick from Martin Pemberton gave Avenue a comfortable win which maintained their season-long unbeaten run at Horsfall Stadium and saw them smash through the 60-point barrier.

But with four of the top five in the UniBond Division One winning, the Bradford side are still playing catch-up in the race for one of the two promotion places.

Manager Trevor Storton keeps saying that if his side concentrate on their own results they will earn a chance to grace the Premier Division next term.

The margin between Avenue and mid-table Netherfield in this mis-match suggest they are ready for the higher division.

Storton watched his side coast at times and was critical of that, but he was generous in his praise for Pemberton.

"I am delighted for the lad," he said. "Pemberton, and Chris Dolby are brilliant on the ball. We need to get it to them more than we did on Saturday - that's why I brought them here.

"To be honest, we didn't get out of second gear and if we had we would have won by five or six. It was too comfortable at times and that put us in a lazy attitude.

"Sometimes we need a team to throw something at us. It is hard to get the lads motivated."

Avenue's early lead proved counterproductive in that respect. Pemberton opened the scoring in the seventh minute when he ghosted in unmarked to tap Phil Denney's cross in from close range.

That promised a landslide victory. But as the crowd buzzed Avenue strolled and the visitors closed ranks. They broke out only to mount the occasional attack.

Pemberton and Maxwell had both come close to increasing the home side's lead before they finally doubled their advantage minutes from half-time.

Netherfield keeper Greg Price mishandled a cross from Stephen Ball and was powerless as Pemberton drilled a shot into the net from the edge of the area.

After the break the visitors responded better to their manager's encouragement than Avenue did to Storton's and they enjoyed a good spell of possession without really hurting the home defence or troubling goalkeeper Gavin Kelly.

In the 76th minute Pemberton completed his hat-trick with the best goal of the day, rolling in a six-yard shot after a jinking run past three defenders.

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