Avenue vice-president John Helm is taking some blame for the team's recent poor run.

The last time the busy television broadcaster visited Horsfall Stadium was last October when Avenue beat Farsley Celtic 4-3 in a thrilling UniBond Premier Division game.

"It's my fault because I have not been down to see them since that epic night," joked the veteran commentator.

But lucky omen or not, the team has now gone eight games without a league victory and was today trying to find a winning formula in the President's Cup at Ashton.

"I think it is a question of the side holding their nerve," said Helm. "And we need to find some stability in team selection.

"I am not trying to criticise Gary Brook. It just seems that we have used so many players - 40 or so this season.

"It's far too many. He has got to have a settled team. Okay, in the early weeks of the season you are bedding in one or two new players. People do come and go more at local level than national level . But 40 is a little excessive.

"And we are giving far too many goals away, which I think is down to lack of continuity. Players have got to get used to one another. I am sure Gary will be working on a more settled line-up.

"But the ability is there. Danny Walsh has played league football and Greg Challender is a very good non-league player. Dean Calcutt has come back and done very well.

"But I didn't think this season was one where we would be going for the play-offs. Even when the team won six out of eight earlier in the season, I thought that the optimistic talk was a little premature. Nor do I think we should be going down."

Helm added: "But a run like this is clearly worrying and we must stabilise."

Helm does not believe that over-the-top barracking by a minority of Avenue fans is helping the cause.

"It does disturb me when I hear what some of the supporters have been saying - particularly targeting an individual player," he said.

"We had such an horrendous time last season that we just needed to bed down and rebuild a squad. The UniBond Premier Division is tough. And everybody still gets a lift out of trying to beat Bradford Park Avenue."