BRADFORD (Park Avenue) are grateful to have young central midfielder Will Lancaster back on loan from Barnsley, less than two weeks after he initially departed.

He played in Avenue's 2-2 draw at Farsley Celtic in National League North on New Year's Day, but had gone back to South Yorkshire by the time the Horsfall side could only manage a 1-1 draw against 10-man Kettering Town last weekend, a result manager Mark Bower insisted was "two points dropped".

Lancaster's return is therefore well-timed, given Bradford face an important double-header in the coming days, away to Spennymoor Town tomorrow then at home against Scarborough Athletic on Monday night.

Avenue boss Bower said: "We loaned Will in in November and he did well.

"He's improved his game over a short period of time here and he's taken to this level of football nicely.

"We were keen to get him back from Barnsley after that initial loan period ended and we knew after last weekend we'd have a good chance of doing that.

"I hope he continues what he has been doing for us until the end of the season now."

Addressing the first of Avenue's upcoming fixtures, against under-achieving Spennymoor, Bower said: "Where they are (15th) shows the strength of the league.

"There are a few teams like them who would have been expecting to be higher, because they're equipped to challenge up towards the top.

"Spennymoor, Boston and Buxton are three teams who've all spent a bit of money, but have found themselves stuck in the bottom half.

"I think Spennymoor in particular though are a team who can make a push right up the table in the second half of the season."

Scarborough are the opposite, with the newly-promoted side bloodying plenty of noses so far to currently sit in fifth.

Bower said: "They've done really well.

"It just shows the benefits of the continuation of sticking with lads who've done a good job in previous seasons.

"They seem to have a real team spirit, their lads know their jobs, and it's a settled side.

"They've made a great start and if they can continue that, they have every chance of being in that play-off mix still at the end of the season.

"It'll be tough to get a result against them, but we're capable of beating anyone.

"We'll be hoping to get the three points against them that we should have picked up in August (when Avenue blew a 2-0 lead late on to draw 2-2)."

Avenue have confirmed they will not be appealing Reece Staunton's three-game ban, which was due to start tomorrow after his red card at Farsley.

Bower explained: "Reece has tweaked his hamstring, so he'll be missing for a couple of weeks regardless.

"We felt we were unlikely to get him off his ban due to our history with appeals, and now he's injured, the red card has become irrelevant really.

"Jamie Spencer has a slight hamstring issue too, and he came off at half-time against Kettering, but we've worked with him in training this week, so hopefully he'll be okay for Spennymoor and Scarborough.

"It's possible we'll have a new face in before the weekend and that they'll be ready to play in these two important games too."