Bradford City 0 - 2 Lincoln City - Match Report

League Two

Tuesday 18th August 2009

Peter Jackson piled the pressure on his former Bradford team-mate Stuart McCall as his Lincoln side ran out two nil victors in a poor game at Valley Parade.

McCall wasn't helped by an enforced change after Steven O'Leary presumably picked up a knock in the warm up but nevertheless his side were their own worst enemies at times tonight with some suicidal defending.

The frustrating thing for City tonight was that Lincoln looked a poor team that were there for the taking but the Bantams squandered a pair of guilt-edged chances just before the break that could have put the game to bed by half time.

Most of the early exchanges had been nothing more than half-chances, Cian Hughton's bobbling cross-cum-shot evading all his team mates and Shane Clarke getting the ball trapped under his feet in a dangerous area allowing Luke O'Brien to clear.

City's best early chance fell to Steve Williams who headed tamely at one-time City target Rob Birch and although Zesh Rehman pulled out a vital block to deny on loan Peterborough striker Rene Howe, that was the end of 'good' parts of City's performance tonight as they reverted back to making several basic errors and squandering several glaring opportunities to net their first goal of the season.

Lincoln, too, were guilty of some horror defending, Janos Kovacs' intended chest back for Birch was intercepted by James Hanson but the ball would not fall quicky enough for the lanky striker and he was dispossessed before being able to rattle off a volley and an even better chance fell to Michael Flynn from the spot. Gareth Evans had worked his way into a position down the right and after Peter Thorne had dummied at the near post, Hanson won a corner with a flick at the near post. From the resulting set-play Thorne forced Clarke into handling and conceding a penalty, but Flynn blasted his spot-kick straight at Birch, who parried high into the sky to prevent an easy rebound.

Thorne saw a flying header blocked at close range and Lee Bullock almost followed up immediately after but saw his curling shot diverted wide by Kovacs, who atoned for his earlier blunder, and Brandon should also have done better with a glorious scoring opportunity with a Thorne flick on that was asking to be volleyed home, but with which he tried to check back inside and was dispossesed.

Those chances had been interspersed around some Lincoln replies though, and Chris Fagan should have done better with an air-shot inside the area after Rehman had failed to cut out a long ball, whilst Williams was lucky not to have conceded a penalty after appearing to handle inside the box.

In the second half the chances appeared to dry up for City and, as on Saturday, they often failed to offer any genuine attacking threat in the final third of the field.

They also failed to eradicate the defensive howlers and a sure sign of things to come came when Ramsden and Rehman both made a meal of headers inside their area, Simon Eastwood dived over the ball as he attempted to collect, and the trio were only spared humilatation when O'Brien made a crucial last ditch block.

Williams and Eastwood's lack of communication almost resulted in a soft goal before Williams and Rehman scrambled back onto the line to hook clear but it was only a matter of time until the Imps broke the deadlock, and that they did just over the hour when Ramsden was caught the wrong side of his man and hauled down Clarke, with the subsequent penalty converted by Howe.

At Notts County, City had capitualated once they had slipped a goal behind, and the same was true tonight as yet more comical defending allowed the visitors to double their advantage. Williams attempted a bizarre clearance and jumped over the top of the ball, and Fagan took advantage of some questionable positioning from Eastwood in goal to roll in a tame second.

From an attacking point of view, City offered little going forward although a bright moment came when Brandon sliced the visitor's defence open with a superb ball down the right channel which was crossed by Ramsden, but Lincoln headed clear to avert the danger before City could trouble Birch, and that was generally the story of their second half.

Gareth Evans had been promoted to the starting eleven at the expense of Michael Boulding after a lively cameo on Saturday, but he failed to take his chance tonight and should have done better with a pair of low shots inside the final five minutes, both of which were well blocked in quick succession.

McCall had thrown on Joe Colbeck to try widen the play and stretch Lincoln outwide, but he was ineffectual, and City were ultimately left ruing their chances quandered at the end of the first half with the only other goalbound efforts of note a weak Michael Boulding shot from the edge of the area and a powerful drive from Flynn that comfortably cleared the crossbar.

BCTID MOM: Rene Howe - nobody stood out for me tonight to be honest in what was a poor game between two poor, error prone sides. Luke O'Brien and Chris Brandon were probably the pick of a a bad City bunch but neither were better than a 6/10 and so Rene Howe gets the nod from me for netting the goal that changed the face of the game and for keeping City's defence up to work on several other occasions throughout the night.