Bradford Park Avenue 2 Worcester City 2 Park Avenue earned a point from their first game in the Blue Square Bet North after a storming second-half performance brought them back from a two-goal deficit.

Richard Marshall drilled in an unstoppable shot in the 88th minute to secure Brad-ford a deserved point and the strike almost brought the house down. Having been out-thought, out-worked and out-classed in the first half, Avenue showed they are quick learners.

Boss John Deacey was delighted with the result, saying: “I thought we were superb in the second half but in the first we were second best in every department.

“I had to make three changes, all because of injuries, so that didn’t make it easy for us.

“We looked overawed at first but, once we got to grips with it, I thought we did very well.

“Worcester are one of the favourites to win it, so it was a tough start for us, but the boys came to terms with it.”

Avenue were under the cosh early as it took visitors Worcester just 11 minutes to break the deadlock from a set-piece.

The home side had conceded a needless corner and, when it was curled in, the unmarked Mike Symons drilled home.

Deacey’s plans began to unravel just after the quarter-hour mark as striker Danny Holland limped off to be replaced by Matty James.

The superb Jamie Jackson set up one chance for Mar-shall and Nathan Hotte fired wide just before the break.

However, it was Worcester who had dominated the opening period and were the team most likely to add to their lead.

Avenue came out for the second half with a different mindset but they had to show even more character after the visitors’ Rob Elvins converted a 59th-minute corner against the run of play.

The comeback got underway in the 74th minute when Paul Walker, who had come on at half-time for the injured Alex Davidson, found Marshall in the area and he controlled the ball before rifling home.

Avenue created more chan-ces but they had to wait until two minutes from time to level. Marshall got his second as he netted a rasping drive from way outside the area.

There were three additional minutes signalled but it turned into more than six as the visitors’ substitute Matt Breeze was shown a straight red card for a lunge at Martin Drury.

There were ugly scenes as players confronted one another and it made for a distasteful end to a very entertaining game.