Bradford City 3-3 Dagenham & Redbridge

Saturday 27 March 2010
Coca-Cola League 2
Bradford City 3 (Hanson 2, 67, Kendall 82)
Dagenham & Redbridge 3 (Nurse 69, 75, Oliver O.G 90)
Kick Off: 3.00pm
at the Coral Windows Stadium

Attendance: 11,064 (100 visitors)

What a way to finish.

Luke Oliver's late own goal was the final and most cruel of twists on an afternoon where City twice must have thought three points were heading their way.

After overcoming the blow of losing a two goal margin, Ryan Kendall's first ever senior strike looked set to hand the Bantams a deserved victory.

But just as the clock ticked past ninety, back came Dagenham to have the final say on proceedings, thanks to a slice of help from the unfortunate Oliver.

Peter Taylor's side had been more than a match for the promotion chasing Daggers and looked the more likely winners from the moment James Hanson headed home after barely a minute.

City could and maybe should have extended their lead in the first period, but had to wait until the second to double their winning margin when Hanson was on hand to score again.

Far from finish the match though, Dagenham roared straight back into the fixture shortly afterwards.

Daggers sub Jon Nurse slammed home from close range before he restored parity thanks to a healty deflection off Steve Williams.

At this point the visitors suddenly looked on the front foot and were keen to seek out an unlikely victory.

To their great credit, the Bantams picked themselves off the floor to retake the lead once again through Kendall with time running out.

His well taken finish seemed set to hand Taylor's men all three points until Oliver's unfortunate intervention.

After winning plaudits during the week for their performance against Notts County, Taylor understandably kept with the same eleven for the visit of the Daggers.

Keen to build on that morale boosting display against the Magpies, City shot out of the blocks.

Dagenham barely had time to settle before the Bantams were ahead.

After forcing an early corner himself, Hanson was able to jump highest and beat Tony Roberts to Robbie Threlfall's centre and head home from barely yards out.

Buzzing from the early goal, the Bantams continued to look a threat in the early exchanges.

Omar Daley was only denied by the merest of deflection from Roberts as he burst past Abu Ogogo and into the Dagenham area, while Rehman elected to head across instead of at goal when he found himself free at the far post.

Daley came just as close moments later as he twisted and turned his way past several yellow jerseys.

As the Jamaican drew Roberts from his goal, he checked again to leave the Daggers keeper on the floor. It appeared one turn too many though as Daley was then crowded out and his eventual effort blocked.

Evans peppered Roberts goal with a couple of sighters thereafter as Dagenham continued to labour in the first period.

Their only real effort of interest came when an unchallenged Josh Scott headed narrowly wide of Matt Glennon's near post.

Both sides gave fans a signal of the excitement and drama to come in the second period by forcing clear goalscoring chances within minutes of the restart.

With Dagenham's first attack of the second period, Glennon was forced into a brilliant reaction save to deny Mark Arber from close range.

The rebound still broke to a yellow shirt, but Threlfall was on hand to bundle the ball away before Benson could get the ball fully under control.

Arber was nearly left to rue that miss as at the other end, Hanson rose superbly to power Daley's cross goalwards.

The forceful header had the beating of Roberts but slammed against the base of the post.

Hanson would not be denied though as he eventually managed to double the Bantams advantage.

From another Threlfall set-piece, Hanson attacked the ball with his usual gusto to beat Roberts with a downward header that flew into the bottom corner.

In between Hanson chances, City had suffered the double blow of losing Daley and Michael Flynn in quick succession through injury.

Daley's injury to his hamstring looks like it could be particularly troublesome.

With City now holding a two goal margin, the match appeared to be going to plan for Taylor and his backroom staff.

Unfortunately, back came the Daggers to amazingly level up the match with six minutes.

Firstly Nurse was on hand to half his side's deficit within two minutes of Hanson's second when he smashed the ball into the top corner from close range after Benson's lay off.

Once was to follow for City as Nurse was again involved.

Scott had already gone extremely close to pulling the Daggers level as he fired wide with only Glennon to beat when City gave the visitors a helping hand to equalise.

Nurse's far post header appeared to be heading straight into the hands of Glennon until Williams stuck a leg out to try and flick the ball away, only to knock the ball past Glennon and into the bottom corner.

At this point, the Daggers tails were up and City looked shell-shocked, there appeared to be only one winner.

With only eight minutes of normally time remaining though it was the Bantams who incredibly edged their noses in front again.

Hanson's flick perfectly found the run of sub Kendall as he arrived unmarked into the box.

Without breaking his stride, the young loanee striker superbly lobbed Roberts on the half volley to superbly hand City the lead once more.

As little time remained, City fans could dare to believe about another home victory under Taylor.

That was until the clock struck past ninety minutes.

After falling to clear their lines, City allowed Nurse to send over a teasing cross that Oliver could only help into the net via a diving header.

It could have been worse for Bradford as Benson missed a late headed opportunity, but after leading for so long, the match felt like a loss as the final whistle blew.

Great crowd Bantam (in spite of pricing structure), D&R do have a way of coming back at you. Sounds like a ''cracking'' game though.

fantastic crowd.

all-yorkshire-clubs wrote:fantastic crowd.

True they have a potentially huge fanbase once the success returns and it will.

Yeah you are right,too get 11 thousand at leauge 2 level is amazing.

hoolahoop wrote:Great crowd Bantam (in spite of pricing structure), D&R do have a way of coming back at you. Sounds like a ''cracking'' game though.

In spite of pricing structure? I know plenty of "Leeds" fans who go and watch Bradford on a regular basis, and i really dont blame them for doing so. If your wondering why... if they want to see decent football for decent prices who can blame them?

Sometimes it surely does baffle me though as to why we keep getting these awesome attendances, the team messed it up with an own goal against D&R... Should have definately been a win but an own goal right at the death made it 3-3.

Felt like we lost the game really, a player that's really on fine form though is James Hanson... He's proven to be one of the biggest Jems we've ever uncovered. I mean, Before he was with us he was playing in the Unibond League for Guiseley...

LEEDSLAD/03/01/2010 wrote:

In spite of pricing structure? I know plenty of "Leeds" fans who go and watch Bradford on a regular basis, and i really dont blame them for doing so. If your wondering why... if they want to see decent football for decent prices who can blame them?

What I meant was that even if it's ''free'' to get in , a club isn't guaranteed a good crowd if the footy is wrong. I can quite understand Bradford based Leeds fans going there when the Smurf charges that amount to get in .

hoolahoop wrote:

What I meant was that even if it's ''free'' to get in , a club isn't guaranteed a good crowd if the footy is wrong. I can quite understand Bradford based Leeds fans going there when the Smurf charges that amount to get in .

Fair point mate. Think it was Oldham they reduced ticket prices to something like £2 and didnt get much over 4000