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| Full name | Bradford (Park Avenue) Association Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Avenue | ||
| Founded | 1907; 118 years ago (1907); 1987; 38 years ago (1987) (Refounded) | ||
| Ground | Horsfall Stadium | ||
| Capacity | 3,500 (1,800 seated) | ||
| Coordinates | 53°45′32″N1°46′34″W / 53.75889°N 1.77611°W /53.75889; -1.77611 | ||
| Chairman | Gareth Roberts | ||
| First Team Manager | Craig Elliott | ||
| League | Northern Premier League Division One East | ||
| 2024–25 | Northern Premier League Division One East, 10th of 22 | ||
| Website | bpafc | ||
Bradford (Park Avenue) Association Football Club, sometimes abbreviated as BPAFC, is anassociation football club based inBradford, West Yorkshire, England. The team competes inNorthern Premier League Division One East, at the eighth tier of theEnglish football league system. The name derived from their former home atPark Avenue, and was used to avoid confusion withBradford derby rivalsBradford City.
The club was founded in 1907 and moved from theSouthern League into theFootball League the next year. They were promoted into theFirst Division at the end of the 1913–14 season, but suffered consecutive relegations by 1922. They won theThird Division North title in 1927–28 and remained in theSecond Division until 1950. Promoted from theFourth Division in 1960–61, the club were relegated from theThird Division in 1963. The club failed in their Football League re-election bid in 1970 and spent the next four seasons in theNorthern Premier League before disbanding.
The present club is aphoenix club that was established in 1987. They moved from theCentral Midlands League into theNorth West Counties League in 1990, gaining promotion from Division Two in 1990–91. They moved into their present home atHorsfall Stadium in 1996 having previously won the North West Counties League Division One title, and then the Northern Premier League Premier Division in 2000–01. Relegated in two successive seasons in 2006, they won the Northern Premier League First Division title in 2007–08 and gained promotion from the Premier Division via the play-offs in 2012.
The original club was formed in 1863 as the Bradford Football Club, playingrugby football, and achieved its first major success by winning theYorkshire Cup in 1884. A member of theRugby Football Union (RFU), Bradford FC became a founding member of the breakawayNorthern Rugby Football Union (after aninternal RFU dispute overbroken-time payments) in 1895. Bradford were runners-up the1897–98 Challenge Cup, won thechampionship in1903–04, and won the1905–06 Challenge Cup.[citation needed]
In 1907, a narrow majority of members decided to abandon the Northern Union game (later known asrugby league) in favour ofassociation football, still based at thePark Avenue ground. The minority faction left and formed a new club within the Northern Union,Bradford Northern. Bradford Northern applied for and was granted Bradford FC's place in the1907–08 Northern Rugby Football Union season.[citation needed]
Bradford FC began playing association football in 1895, alternating home Saturdays at Park Avenue with the Northern Union. The club shared the West Yorkshire League championship with Hunslet in 1895–96, also winning the Leeds Workpeople's Hospital Cup. Bradford played in the FA Amateur Cup in 1896–97, progressing to the FA Cup in 1897–98 and 1898–99. It entered the Yorkshire League in 1897–98, finishing next to last, and was banished toBirch Lane the following season, closing down at the end of the 1898–99 season due to mounting losses.[citation needed]
The success of cross-town neighboursManningham after switching to association football, (where it was renamedBradford City A.F.C.), prompted the Northern Union club to abandon rugby in 1907 and apply to jointhe Football League. They were not accepted, instead joining theSouthern League (although the club was based in the north) and filling a gap left byFulham (who joined the Football League). Their nearest opponents were Northampton Town, whose ground was 130 miles distant.[1]
In 1908, Bradford FC waselected to theSecond Division of the Football League. The club was promoted to theFirst Division in 1914 after finishing second, and achieved its highest-ever league position (ninth) at the end of the1914–15 season. In 1914,Donald Bell, who went on to win theVictoria Cross, played four games. At the outbreak of war, he asked to be released to serve. Rising to the rank of lieutenant, in 1916 he received the VC for conspicuous bravery on theSomme before being killed five days later.[2]
After theFirst World War the club began a steady decline, relegated to the Second Division in 1921 and to theThird Division North in 1922. In 1928, the club were the Division 3N champions and were promoted back to the Second Division. They were relegated again in 1950, and placed in theFourth Division after a 1958 reorganisation. Although the club won promotion to theThird Division in 1961, they were relegated back to the Fourth Division in 1963.[citation needed]
In 1970 they were replaced in the Football League byCambridge United. The club joined the Northern Premier League, selling Park Avenue in 1973 and sharing facilities withBradford City. Bradford (Park Avenue) went intoliquidation on 3 May 1974 with debts of £57,652 and immediately re-formed as aSunday league club playing in the league club's former colours.[citation needed]
After playing at Bingley Road and Hope Avenue in 1974 in Bradford Amateur Sunday League Division Four, the club moved to Avenue Road and won promotion in 1975. The next season, they were again promoted into the newly formed Bradford Sunday Alliance League.[citation needed]
Although the stands and other buildings at Park Avenue were demolished in 1980, the playing field andterraces remained. The stadium was renovated for amateur football during the mid-1980s, and the Sunday League club played a full season there in 1987–88. However, it was forced to move out at the end of the season to accommodate an indoor cricket school on part of the pitch.[citation needed]
A new club was formed to return Bradford (Park Avenue) to Saturday football for the1988–89 season, joining theWest Riding County Amateur Football League and then theCentral Midlands League for 1989–90. The club moved to theNorth West Counties League from 1990 to 1991, playing matches at rugby-league grounds such asMcLaren Field andMount Pleasant, Batley. The Sunday side formed in 1974 merged with the new Saturday club in 1992. In 1995, Bradford (Park Avenue) won the North West Counties League, re-joining the Northern Premier League and a year later in 1996 moving to Horsfall Stadium.[citation needed]
At the beginning of the 2004–05 season they were founding members of theConference North, although they were relegated to the Northern Premier League at the end of the season (after finishing seventh) and to Northern Division North the following season. The club returned to the Northern Premier League as champions in the 2007–08 season.[citation needed]
The club reached theFA Cup quarterfinals in 1912–13, 1919–20 and 1945–46. Since re-forming they have reached the first round three times, in 2003–04, 2011–12 and 2012–13. Since dropping into non-league football, the club's bestFA Trophy performance has been the fourth round in 1998–99. In theFA Vase, the club reached the second round in 1994–95.[citation needed]
In February 2008, chief executive Bob Blackburn unveiled plans for a 20,000-seat stadium at Phoenix Park inThornbury, within theLeeds metropolitan district, but the site had to be sold before this was realised.[3] In July 2008 Blackburn predicted on a supporters' forum that the club would reach the Football League within four years.[4] In 2012, Bradford gained promotion to the Conference North by beatingF.C. United of Manchester 1–0 in the playoff final.[5]
The2022–23 season saw Bradford relegated from the National League North following a ten-season spell, their fate confirmed following a 2–0 defeat to championsAFC Fylde on the final day of the season.[6] Another disastorous season followed, the club suffering back-to-back relegations from the Northern Premier League Premier Division.[7][8]
The 2024/25Northern Premier League East Division season started out poorly, with managerDanny Whitaker sacked after 5 matches in charge, the decision finally being made after a 4-1 defeat at home to Liversedge. The Club appointedJames Hanson (footballer, born 1987) as caretaker manager, who immediately turned our fortunes around with a 3-1 away win vs Grimsby Borough. The Club then acted quickly to appoint highly rated manager Craig Elliott as the new man in charge, who steadied the ship, finishing 10th in the 2024/25 season. During that season Craig made vital signings ofMark Beevers as our new club captain, ex-Sheffield Wednesday F.C. u21s player Josh Ashman, and secured Connor Shanks, Myles La Bastide and Kareem Hassan-Smith on contracts.
For season 2025/26 Craig brought in new players Jameel Ible, Prince Ekpolo, Luke Parkin, Marcus Carver, Connor Brown, Charlie Winfield, Joe Ackroyd, Louie Chorlton, Rico Kilbourn and Adriano Moke. The team went on an unbeaten league run, putting them at the top of the NPL East table after 6 matches.[citation needed]
The traditional colours of Bradford (PA) were red, amber and black; they were inherited from the original Bradford RFC, and retained by theBradford & Bingley RFC andBradford Bulls RLFC (all of whom claim a common genealogy).[citation needed] The same colours have also been used by other sports organisations in Bradford (such as cycling, hockey and athletics as well as being the principal colours used by Bradford University sports teams), principally as a red, amber and black band on a white shirt (as worn by Bradford Northern and as an away kit by Bradford (PA)). Red, amber and black are also the colours of the Bradford Cricket Club, formed in 1836.[citation needed]
In 1911, Bradford changed its colours to green and white after the appointment of formerCeltic playerTom Maley, brother ofWillie Maley (who also played for Celtic before becoming their first manager). Avenue was the only club to wear green and white in the English First Division, between 1914 and 1921. The club reverted to red, amber and black with white in 1924, reviving green and white from 1958 to 1967. The reformed Bradford (Park Avenue) club has worn green and white since 1988. Avenue's club crest was the 1907 version of the Bradford coat of arms; this has also been used by the re-formed club, although it was replaced by the municipality in 1974.[citation needed]
Red, amber and black has occasionally returned in away strips, notably the club's 2007 centenary shirt (which featured the three colours as hoops). During the 2012–13 season, the club introduced a white home shirt with a red, amber and black sash to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the original club. The club retained a green-and-white striped away shirt.[9]
For the 2023/24 season, Bradford (Park Avenue) joined up withEV2 Sportswear for their kit, adopting a custom chevron design in White & Green (Home) and Red, Amber and Black (Away). The home goalkeeper kit was a full red design, and the away was lime green with a black paint splatter design on top.[citation needed]
In the 2025/26 season, Avenue switched kit suppliers, signing a new deal withCapelli Sport, adopting a custom design, a white shirt with a green stripe down the middle of the home shirt, with thin green lines going down either side. The away kit dropped the Red from the traditional colours, going for an Amber and Black design. The design has thin black lines coming from the top and bottom, with the main Amber colour over the rest of the shirt.[citation needed]
Although officiallyBradford Football Club, the club was obliged to appendPark Avenue (the location of the club'soriginal stadium) in brackets to its name in 1907 to avoid confusion with Bradford City. However the club was historically always referred to simply asBradford in fixture lists, classified results and the national press.[citation needed] However, since dropping into non-league "the Park Avenue" (or simply PA) is used.[citation needed]
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Manager | Craig Elliott |
| Player/Assistant Manager | Danny Ellis |
| Player/Assistant Manager | Ryan Toulson |
| Goalkeeper Coach | Karl Lenaghan |
| Sports Rehabilitator | Brad Smith |
| Kit Man | Matt Harrison |
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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