Bradford Park Avenue
Bradford Park Avenue , actually Bradford Association Football Club , is an English football club from Bradford , West Yorkshire . It was re-established in 1988 in the tradition of the former first division club, which was dissolved in 1974.
Surname
Although the club is actually called Bradford AFC, it has become common practice to run the club under the name Bradford Park Avenue to differentiate it from local rivals Bradford City AFC . Park Avenue was the name of the stadium used by the club for a long time.
history
The club was founded in 1863 as Bradford Football Club and was one of the founding members of the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895 . In 1904 the club won the championship, two years later the Challenge Cup . In 1907 the game was given up under the rugby league rules and it was decided to switch to football. Since the Orstr rival Bradford City AFC also registered the name Bradford United, the club could not fall back on any of the common name suffixes. Then they simply gave themselves the name Bradford AFC without any additions.
The club applied for admission to the Football League , which was refused. The team then competed in the Southern Football League , where they took the place of Fulham FC , which had been accepted into the Football League. A year later Bradford was inducted into the Second Division himself . In 1913 he was promoted to the first-class First Division , where the best result in the club's history was achieved with ninth place in 1915.
In 1921 Bradford was relegated from the first division and was passed through to the third division in the following season . In 1928 he returned to the second class. Until 1950, the team played in the Second Division before relegated again. When the English league system was restructured in 1958, the team even slipped into the fourth division , but was able to rise again to the third division in 1961. In 1963, the club had to descend again in the fourth division.
1970 Bradford AFC was voted out of the Football League and replaced by Cambridge United . Now the club had to compete in the Northern Premier League . Because of financial difficulties, the home stadium Park Avenue was sold in 1973. However, the problems were not finally resolved and a year later the club went bankrupt.
The club continued to exist as a recreational team, before it was re-established as a regular club from 1988 and participated in the championship of the West Riding County Amateur Football League . This was followed by promotion to the Central Midlands Football League and later in the North West Counties Football League .
1995 succeeded the promotion to the Northern Premier League. In 2004 they were promoted to Conference North , from which the team relegated directly after only one season.
Well-known players and coaches
- Donald Simpson Bell
- Craig Bellamy
- Vic Buckingham (coach, 1951-53)
- Jack Crayston
- Ron Greenwood
- Kevin Hector
- Paddy Kenny
- Derek Kevan
- Lutz Pfannenstiel
