Avenue boss Deacey coping well with the pressure

John Deacey masterminded yet another victory in midweek to put Avenue four points clear again – with chief rivals Guiseley heading to Horsfall Stadium on Monday, following tomorrow’s trip to Ashton United.

Sir Alex Ferguson refers to this stage of the season as squeaky bum time but there are certainly no noises emanating from Horsfall Stadium.

Wednesday’s win, Avenue’s 20th of the campaign, was possibly the most impressive to date.

They had seen all their rivals pick up points last Saturday while they were stalled by a waterlogged Horsfall Stadium pitch.

By having to wait until Wednesday for their game it meant many of the other contenders had already played again.

Neighbours Guiseley had pulled level on points, so the spotlight was very much on Avenue and their response to that fresh challenge. To cap it all they had to travel to Bury’s Gigg Lane to take on FC United of Manchester.

Despite it being a midweek game and competing with a tasty FA Cup replay being shown live on terrestrial TV there were still almost 2,000 mainly partisan fans cheering the home side on.

Not that it did them much good, as Avenue won 5-1.

Avenue chairman Dr John Dean said: “We didn’t have it all our own way but the result stands and I understand it was FC United’s heaviest ever defeat. It was an amazing game, it really was.

“There was so much incident in the game that it took some time to sink in. I had to check and double check all the details afterwards because the game just flashed by.

“We started slowly amd the players really had to dig deep and show some determination. It certainly wasn’t a lucky win for us.

“Since John took over we have played some excellent football and the squad has showed its spirit.

“Myself, Bob (Blackburn, chief executive officer) and Kevin (Hainsworth, director) have all praised John publicly but I’m not sure we have done him justice because he, his staff and the players keep surpassing themselves.”