Bradford Park Avenue take to the road on Saturday after five home friendly fixtures but they are unlikely to lose their way along the route to destination Keighley.

They are taking on Silsden at the club's rented home of Cougar Park, a first on two fronts - the first time the two clubs have ever met and the first time Bradford have played at the venue.

Avenue historian Tim Clapham, who lives in Nab Wood and is a regular visitor to the ground as a Keighley Cougars follower, confirmed the game is the only ever meeting of the clubs.

"We have never played them in a pre-season friendly, never been drawn against them in the West Riding County Cup and, despite both being West Yorkshire clubs to have come through the North West Counties structure, have never been in the same division at the same time," said Clapham.

"I hope there will be a decent crowd to watch the game as it is no distance to travel and there should be a derby atmosphere. It will be strange for me to see players kicking a ball around the field rather than throwing it."

Silsden were due to host Avenue in a pre-season game two years ago. The teams turned up on the day but Avenue's then manager Gary Brook would not allow his players to take part.

It was on the eve of the season and Brook did not want to risk injury. The supporters were there and Silsden were keen to play, so Avenue were seen as the bad guys.

"I can understand why we got a bit of flak for the game that never was as someone had to be seen to be blamed," said Clapham.

"But in all honesty it wasn't fit to play and everyone at Avenue was just as disappointed as the Silsden people were."

This time the managers made every effort to prevent a repetition of that misunderstanding by arranging a pitch inspection, with Avenue boss Benny Phillips invited to the ground on Tuesday.

"The pitch is better than it was when we had to call that game off," said Silsden manager Paul Schofield, who was number two to Andy Geary at the time.

"There are bare patches and it is rutted in places but their manager is happy to go ahead with the game.

"We are delighted because we wanted to play Avenue and if that was to happen we wanted it to be here, where we play our league games and have the facilities to stage the bigger fixtures.

"It is just a shame that we can't water the pitch before the game. After all of the rain we had earlier in the summer, the pitch has turned bone hard after just four or five days of dry weather."

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