A near 750 crowd, containing a large contingent from Bradford, saw Town run out 2-1 winners in an action packed match.
It took only five minutes for Town to take the lead when Chris Hall headed down Leigh Frank’s long throw, leaving Adam Nowakowski to sidefoot past Jack Bentley at the near post.
Bradford hit back with Louie Swain blazing wide from 20 yards and the impressive Kyel Reid providing a searching run and cross,before hitting a free kick at Craig MacGillivray.
Town,however were presenting plenty of threats of their own with Sam Jones just failing to turn in a Craig Nelthorpe cross and Hall cleverly turning Carl McHugh before shooting weakly at Bentley.
On 36 minutes the Bantams were level when Swain took advantage of Matt Bloomer’s slip to break down the left and cross for Nathan Curtis to score via a deflection.
Within a minute Town had restored their lead, when Ashley Worsfold’s angled drive found the far corner after he had been played in by Hall’s pass.
Nowakowski then squared to Nelthorpe whose 30 yard drive just skimmed the crossbar.
City made strenuous efforts to equalise before the break and Franks did well to clear after a shot squirmed under McGillivray.
Alan Connell was inches wide with a free kick after he had been brought down, and with the last action of the half, Swain headed wide from an excellent Paul Wheldon centre.
City made a bright start to the second half with Reid’s cross shot being turned for a corner and Swain again nodding a Wheldon cross wide.
The visiting fans biggest cheer of the night came in the 64th minute when 6’7″ central defender,Luke Oliver,made his first appearance since October after suffering an achilles injury against Burton Albion.
Both sides had chances in the final quarter with Shane Killock making a superb tackle to deny Reid and Town sub Michael Woods then created late chances for Liam Hardy and Adam Bolder,both of which went narrowly wide.
Att.746
