Bradford Park Avenue’s lead at the top of the Premier Division was cut to a single point following a busy midweek of UniBond League football.

Avenue were one of the few clubs not involved so while their challengers were battling in tough games, the Bradford side were resting. A by-product of that is that the Horsfall outfit are back to having two games in hand on most of the title hopefuls.

John Deacey’s side will still need maximum points from Saturday’s visit of Worksop Town. The fourth-bottom club are glancing over their shoulders at the relegation dogfight so will be looking to upset the odds this weekend.

Deacey said: “We had to battle for a point at Retford United last week but in the end we could easily have won the game. We didn’t so that’s gone now and we focus on Saturday with the benefit of gaining a very good away point.

“There were no fresh injuries and we have had a clear midweek for the ones carrying little knocks to recover. The injury situation isn’t as bad as it has been. Going back a couple of weeks, we had a lot of people out.

“Last weekend we had Amjad Iqbal and Mark Hume both fit enough to start in the centre of defence. We also had Martin Drury on the bench and this week we might have James Knowles back.

“We will definitely have Simon Baldry back as he got his one-game suspension out of the way at Retford. We missed him in that game and it is one of very few he has missed this season. He has been outstanding in all of the other games.”

Pakistan international Iqbal had been struggling with a shoulder injury after dislocating the joint earlier in the campaign. Hume picked up an ankle injury on the artificial surface at Durham City towards the end of last month.

Drury has been missing for a longer spell with his ankle injury and Knowles, who is vital because of his versatility, is on the way back from an eye complaint. That was a legacy of a concussion he picked up following a clash of heads in the 2-0 win at Burscough at the start of February.

Deacey said: “We have two home games on the trot now, Worksop on Saturday and Whitby Town the following weekend, and we have to make the most of them.”