It has been a rocky season for West Yorkshire side Bradford Park Avenue; with the club having endured three managers, a whole new batch of players and a lacklustre rock bottom finish.
Sitting 22nd in the Vanarama National League North, the Avenue were luckily saved by the Football Associations (FA) decision to deem all football between steps three to six of non-league football as null and void due to the coronavirus pandemic which has temporarily halted the footballing world.
Despite Avenue's fortune, the one man who has managed to steady the ship is the returning Mark Bower, who has been left to deal with the ramifications of poor management and even poorer leadership qualities; but where are these managers now?
Marcus Law- the experienced gaffer has been in management for over twenty years, having begun his managerial career back in 1999 at Coventry Sphinx FC. In his years as a boss rather than a player, Law has been in charge of Racing Club Warwick, Quorn FC, Barwell and Kettering Town before taking charge of then Conference club Tamworth on a three year contract. In his time with the Lambs he managed to steer the club to the third round of the FA Cup but they were bested by Premier League team Everton. After 19 months he was sacked by the club and took over Forest Green Rovers later that year working alongside Dave Hockaday but soon left the club after Hockaday departed. After a short spell as Wrexham interim manager and acting as a footballing scout, he was given a route back into football with Chasetown FC but left the club four months later to re-take over Kettering and in his four years at the club secured promotion with the Poppies. It was then Law who took charge of BPA, boding an impressive UEFA B license and a talented assistant in Lee Fowler, but Law was replaced by Bower before not long.
Garry Thompson- quite possibly one of the shortest lasting managements in Bradford Park Avenue history, Thompson took charge of the club after Bower resigned at the end of the 2018/19 season due to a lack of backing from the BPA board. Thompson is no stranger to Bradford, having made 86 appearances for neighbours Bradford City and even getting promotion with the club to League One in 2014. Thompson was even part of the memorable City squad who made it to the EFL Cup final but tragically lost 5-0 to a rampant Swansea City. Thompson lacked any real management experience or quality, having taken over a youthful and inexperienced Avenue side who had lost several key players in the off-season. Unfortunately, Thompson suffered two back to back 5-0 defeats in the first two opening games of the 2019/20 National League North season and he was sacked on the 8th of August 2019.
Mark Bower- a well respected and admired man, Bower has earned the plaudits during his time in Bradford; not just for the Avenue. Bower came through the youth setup at Bradford City and made 231 appearances in his time there, before retiring in 2013. He acted first as the Guiseley caretaker manager and lost his first two games in charge at Nethermoor, but nevertheless was appointed as the first team manager. In his time with the club he suffered relegation from the National League and was involved in a heated scandal as he refused to support fair play as his Guiseley side scored, despite Braintree Town putting the ball out of play to aid an injured Braintree player. Bower publicly defended his side and therefore received an overwhelming amount of backlash, but continued as Lions manager. However he was dismissed from his job in August 2016 and one month later took over at the Horsfall Stadium, where he helped the club to moved away from relegation candidates to promotion candidates, but left the club in the off-season of 2019 due to a disagreement with the board. Since his departure, BPA have fallen and faltered, meaning his return recently only spells good news for the Green Army.
Alex Meechan- the former Avenue boss who featured for 22 different clubs in a long playing career, Meechan certainly had the football knowledge to carry Avenue forward. He began his journey into management however upon being offered the assistant manager role at former club Telford United where he also acted as a player due to a substantial amount of injuries. However after just two months at the club he departed to become Barrow's assistant manager in the National League North due to Telford not offering him a new contract and also acted as the caretaker manager at Barrow. However he left Barrow after less than a year in charge and was jobless for the next three years, but Bradford Park Avenue offered him a way into management in 2016, originally as an assistant manager to an unnamed manager, who unfortunately never arrived at the club. Due to this unusual scenario, he was upgraded to the manager position but failed to win a single game in his short tenure at the club and was relieved of his duties not long into his stint. He did however become the academy manager not long later at the Avenue and left the club as recent as February 2019 to take over the role of joint manager at Stafford Rangers.
Martin Drury- a name which will sound familiar to fans of both Bradford clubs, Drury was forced to retire from playing at the age of 28 due to injury. He had spent his last five years as a player at Bradford Park Avenue, but moved into an assistant manager role at the club whilst also doubling as a coach at Boston United. He was officially appointed as manager in April 2015 replacing John Deacey but had a tiring 11 months at the club before being relieved of his duties, as the youngest manager in the league. Drury moved onto become a full-time youth coach at neighbours City, and within two years at the club had been promoted to become the Lead Development Coach for the entire youth setup at Valley Parade. Drury was surprisingly promoted to the first team in Edin Rahic's strange decision to appoint Michael Collins and Greg Abbott as the club's acting first team coaches. Upon Collins and Abbott's sackings, Drury held onto his job and helped David Hopkin in his attempt to restore stability to City, but as he witness Hopkin's sacking he was allowed to be the club's caretaker manager, in which he appointed a new captain and humorously lost 5-1 away to Portsmouth. He publicly stated that appointing a new manager was a "matter of urgency" and as Gary Bowyer took the reigns he was retained as a coach.
John Deacey- a stalwart at Park Avenue, Deacey spent four and a half years at the club before leaving by mutual consent as he felt he had led the club as far as he could. In his time at the Horsfall Stadium, the veteran manager got Avenue promoted to the Conference North and lifted the West Riding County Cup. As Gareth Roberts bought the club, Deacey opted to leave for pastures new and spent the next 18 months as the joint manager at Farsley Celtic, where he helped the club to promotion from the Northern Premier League before he left the club due to personal reasons. Deacey then chose to join Scarborough Athletic as their new first team manager to help cement a promotion push from the BetVictor Northern Premier League, but failed to do so and left the club after six consecutive defeats leaving the club in a underwhelming league position.
Lee Sinnott- the father of the late Jordan Sinnott who tragically passed in January, Sinnott was in charge of the club for just one season having taken the role originally from Deacey who then became Sinnott's assistant. After a season of stabilising the club in the NPL, Sinnott went on a spending spree in the Summer but it failed to produce results and so he left the club by mutual consent. After a season out of the game he took charge of Altrincham who had just been relegated to the Conference North, where he went onto secure promotion through the play-offs but sadly suffered relegation not long after, however he was replaced by his successor, his own assistant. In February 2018 Sinnott took charge of Gainsborough Trinity, but he took over a sinking ship and was involved in the clubs relegation to the NPL, which would eventually lead to his sacking as he failed to lead a promotion race in the club's new season.
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