Bridlington Town hoping to shine under Friday night lights at Bradford Park Avenue

Veteran midfielder Simon Heslop has recovered from injury for the Seasiders. PHOTO BY TCF PHOTOGRAPHY

It’s a rare flavour of Friday night football for Bridlington Town, who take on Bradford Park Avenue in the Northern Premier League East Division on Friday, December 13 at the Horsfall Community Stadium, with kick off at 7:45pm.

The fixture will be Town’s first encounter on the road since a 2-0 victory over Sherwood Colliery on November 9, writes Ben Edwards.

The Seasiders’ last scheduled away game against Consett on November 23 was postponed due to the wintry weather, as was their most recent game against Bishop Auckland on Saturday.

As a result, Denny Ingram’s side were last in action against Emley on Saturday November 30.

Danny Earl is hoping to return from injury. PHOTO BY DOM TAYLOR

It was always going to be a tough affair against a side second in the league, who ultimately left East Yorkshire with a 2-0 victory.

Having also lost their previous home game against Newton Aycliffe by the same scoreline, Brid will be looking to turn things around.

After the Emley game, Ingram said: “At times we were the better side. I’ve just said to the boys, it comes down the two boxes.

"From 18-yard box to 18-yard box we compete.”

In the reverse fixture against Bradford, the Seasiders fell to a 1-0 defeat back in October - another reason they will be aiming to put things right on Friday evening.

As ever in the competitive NPL East division, it will be no easy task as the newly-relegated West Yorkshire side will be aiming to bounce straight back into the Premier Division.

Two seasons ago, Bradford were competing in the National League North, though back-to-back relegations now see them playing in the fourth tier of non-league.

The first half of the 2024-25 campaign has only seen them occupy eighth position, meanwhile the recent defeats for the Seasiders has seen them drop to 16th.

Park Avenue, like Brid, go into Friday’s encounter off the back of a defeat, losing 2-1 at Carlton. However, they picked up a convincing 4-1 win over Sherwood Colliery the week before.

Consistency seems to be the main problem, having picked up nine wins, five draws and five losses to earn 32 points.

During the past month Town have suffered somewhat of an injury crisis, though they seem to have come through that with Simon Heslop and Tom Allan both returning.

Danny Earl is also expected to return, and the extra week’s break should give him a chance to recover further from the hamstring injury, in order to increase the amount of time he’ll be able to play on Friday.

However, the Seasiders will be without a couple of players through suspension, with Allan and Sam Kay having both accumulated five yellow cards.