SHAKERS joint chairman John Smith has hit back at Bradford Park Avenue's demands for an FA investigation into Paddy Kenny's recent transfer to Sheffield United.

The UniBond League club, who sold Kenny to Bury for £10,000 in 1998, were entitled to a sell-on fee and have been insensed that the Shakers sold the player for a knockdown price, believed to be in the region of £60,000.

Speaking on Park Avenue's official website club chairman Frank Thornton said the deal "stinks" but his opposite number at Gigg Lane has been quick to dismiss any claims of underhand dealing.

"I don't know if the FA or Football League will look into the transfer but as far as we are concerned we have nothing to fear," he said.

"It's just one of those things that happen in football. Everyone at the club would have rather seen Paddy go for a lot more money but the fact is Sheffield's was the only bid we reveived for him.

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"I read what Bradford had been saying in a non-league newspaper and it seems they'd been expecting about £200,000.

"You can understand how they feel, but the situation in football has changed and there is no big transfer money at our level of the game."

Ambitious Park Avenue are chasing hard on the heels of Accrington Stanley at the top of the UniBond Premier Division and like Stanley are hell bent on regaining their Football League status they lost in 1970.

Having watched their rivals pick up £200,000 from the sell-on clause that followed Brett Ormerod's move from Blackpool to Southampton, the Yorkshiremen were clearly hoping for a similar windfall instead of the £2,400 they are to receive.

In the website article, Thornton went on to describe the transfer fee as a "ludricrous sum" and questioned why Sheffield United would sign a goalkeeper on a four-year-deal if he is worth so little.

But he clearly hasn't seen the bigger picture. The parlous financial situation at Gigg Lane meant they needed Kenny of the payroll quickly and the reduced fee the Shakers picked up was better than nothing, which is what they'd have got had he walked out of the club on a Bosman at the end of the season.