Park Avenue 4 Ossett Town 2

 A ninth straight victory ensured Bradford Park Avenue stayed out in front in the UniBond Premier League.

It could have been a tricky derby against Ossett Town and Avenue contrived to make it harder for themselves by gifting the visitors two late goals. Overall though there was only ever going to be one winner, and that was the one playing the best football.

Avenue dominated the game and, but for the class of Ossett’s former Farsley Celtic keeper Liam Sutcliffe, the damage would have been far greater.

Despite being beaten four times, Sutcliffe had a strong claim for being man of the match.

The home side produced several moves that deserved to see the ball nestling in the back of the net. However, it was five minutes before half-time when they finally broke the deadlock and that was courtesy of an own goal.

As Matty James twisted and turned in the area, he decided he could not get a shot in and elected to fire the ball to the far side of the box. Town right back Jamie Fradgley launched himself at the ball hoping to clear but inadvertently headed it past his own keeper.

Sutcliffe was beaten again just eight minutes into the second half. He raced off his line to close Rob O’Brien down but the midfielder slid the ball under him after taking a slide rule pass from Chris Hall in his stride.

Two goals in just over a minute midway through the second half put Avenue firmly in control. Centre back Mark Hume was up in the area for a Stephen Downes corner and he hooked in a half volley. Moments later, a cut-back by James was swept home by Aiden Savory.

Avenue were in cruise control and manager John Deacey made several changes to ease his players’ work-rate ahead of Tuesday night’s trip to North Ferriby United. That lead to Town getting a foothold but it proved to be nothing other than a consolation brace.

A 77th-minute shot from Andy Caton was deflected past Avenue keeper Steve Dickinson and, eight minutes from time, substitute Lee Malcher netted after a free-kick had been floated into a packed area.

Avenue boss John Deacey said: “How we scored only four amazes me – we had 28 goal attempts and forced 12 corners. We definitely cut them open with our play more than the other way around.

“It made a big difference to our defence when I brought Amjad Iqbal off but that was a precaution. We had a few players suffering with injuries from the week before and the changes were needed. We have a huge game coming in midweek.”