Former Bradford City man Daniel Francis enjoying Avenue

The former Bantams youth defender arrived back at his old stomping ground in the summer after spending four seasons plying his trade in Germany with fourth and fifth tier sides Rot Weiss Ahlen, KFC Uerdingen 05 and TuS Bövinghausen.

His move there, sadly, proved to be an injury-ravaged spell and he only made 61 appearances across the four campaigns.

However, Francis, a former Sierra Leone international, has been part of the Bradford (Park Avenue) revolution which, until last Saturday, had seen the Horsfall side go ten unbeaten under the guidance of manager Craig Elliott.

Francis, along with team-mate Kareem Hassan-Smith, signed a deal until the end of the season yesterday, and he has spoken to the T&A of his delight at being back out on the field after an extremely difficult time in Germany.

He said: “It’s great to be playing regularly again because I missed the whole of last season (through injury).

“Before that, of course, I was playing at a higher level in Germany and was also on the international scene with Sierra Leone, but right now I’m playing again, and that’s the most important thing for me.

“It also helps when you’re enjoying your football, and I certainly am at the minute. We’ve got a great group of lads, so long may it continue.”

Since moving to Avenue in July, Francis has avoided any further setbacks to his relief.

Giving his thoughts on why that may be, he said: “At this current moment, I’m working as hard as I was when I was on the bench for Sierra Leone against Nigeria, or when I was about to come on for my international debut. Nothing has changed for me.

“These experiences (injuries) have really humbled me.

“Often in life, you might have a certain level of entitlement, for example putting X, Y or Z into something and expecting a certain level of outcome in return.

“However, that’s not the case for me. I’ve continued to work hard and trust the process. As long as I’m doing my best, then that’s all I can do because certain aspects of the game like injuries are totally out of my control.

“Fingers crossed; I can continue in this manner.”

Francis arrived at the club in July at a time when previous manager Danny Whitaker was in charge of the first team, and since then Elliott has taken over.

Discussing the new boss’ impact so far, Francis said: “Craig has come in and put a marker down on how he wants to play and how he wants his team to look like, and I think everyone has bought into that.

“If you look back to the start of the season, I think some of the fans will have been worried and slightly unhappy, but it seems as though that feeling has completely gone after speaking to a number of them.

“That comes from everyone buying into the manager’s ideas and believing in his philosophy. Of course, we’ve worked extremely hard too on the training field and in matches, and you can see that in recent results and the run that we’ve been on (nine unbeaten in the league before last weekend).

“We really are putting in the work as players too. The sessions are intense, and we look to get as much as possible out of each one, which is benefitting us when matchdays come around.”

The Avenue boys are all buying into Craig Elliott's ways of playing (Image: John Rhodes)

Avenue’s unbeaten run did come to an end last weekend as they fell to a 3-1 defeat at Newton Aycliffe, but they have the chance to bounce back against another promotion hopeful today.

They host Dunston UTS (3:00 pm) who sit 6th and are on the same points as BPA (28) who occupy 7th in the league table.

Looking ahead to the fixture, Francis admitted: “It’s massively important that we get back to winning ways this weekend.

“We know what we want to achieve this season, and that starts with getting victories. Draws just simply aren’t enough if we want to achieve our end goals.

“Being unbeaten is great, but winning is all that counts and we are determined to get the three points on Saturday.”

Francis added: “It’s a big game too against another promotion rival. Winners win the big matches, so that’s what we’ll need to do.

“If we want to be successful then these are the types of games we must win.”