THE feel-good factor returning with Bradford Park Avenue's excellent run away from immediate relegation danger is tinged with one big regret for Horsfall boss John Deacey – the state of the pitch.

The surface at the council-owned facility is poor and has always been a bone of contention. Deacey likes his side to play in a certain way but they struggle to adhere to the free-flowing and attractive football that they can adopt away from home.

"The pitch is shocking and away teams are always saying that they cannot believe we have to play on that every week," said the Avenue manager.

"My heart sinks some days when I look at it and it led to a lot of our problems and the league position we were in. When all the fixtures were being postponed and we went weeks without a home game, we were deep in the relegation zone.

"It's no good having games in hand because you need to convert them into points and the bigger the backlog of games, the less chance there is of winning them.

"We have ended up playing two games a week and probably will have to play three in some weeks before the end of the season.

"The pitch is diabolical and has always been our biggest problem. Bob (Blackburn, former chief executive) and Kevin (Hainsworth, former finance director) were forever having to get some work done on it and the new board had to spend even more and have a couple of areas dug up and replaced.

"To be fair to the new directors, they are saying they will fix it in the long term – but how far do you go when it's a public facility. It was the same when Bob and Kevin were in charge."

The new board have negotiated an extension to the club's lease but only until the end of the 2015-16 season, mainly to comply with Conference League rules. They have said that the situation is not ideal but the short-term future of the club must be taken care of.

Joe Mosley, one of the new directors, said: "This is a short-term solution but it was necessary to sort it out so that we can continue to compete.

"In the meantime, we are working as hard as we can to secure long-term tenure for the club's future home. We will keep everyone informed as any decisions are made."