Bradford City 1-1 Northampton Town

Saturday 19 March 2011
npower League 2
Bradford City 1 (Speight 8 pen)
Northampton Town 1 (Harrad 60 pen)
Kick Off: 3.00pm
at the Coral Windows Stadium

Attendance: 10,684 (187 visitors)

It was a tale of two penalties at the Coral Windows Stadium this afternoon as City survived a late red card to Jon Worthington to collect only their fifth draw of the season.

City took the lead in the 8th minute when Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi was adjudged to have handled Kevin Ellison's cross in the box and Jake Speight tucked away the resulting spot kick.

The Bantams failed took kick on from there though and Northampton responded through a penalty of their own when Lewis Hunt brought down Shaun Harrad in the area in the second period.

Harrad took the penalty himself to smash Northampton level with a driven spot kick.

In a game littered with yellow cards, it was unfortunately no surprise when the game ended a man light.

With Northampton threatening to start a late break forward, Worthington took the legs of Bauza as the ball tangled for a bouncing ball - leading to the Bantams man being shown his second yellow of the match.

The point does move City up to ten points away from the relegation zone.

_______________________________________________________________________

FT: Bradford City 1 Northampton Town 1

90+4min: YELLOW CARD - There is still time for yet another booking as Ellison is booked for an aerial tangle with Ofori-Twumasi.

90+3min YELLOW CARD=RED CARD - Worthington is given his marching orders for taking Bauza's legs from under him as Northampton threaten to break forward.

90min: 4 minutes to be added on at the end of the match.

89min: Williams is then forced to clear the ball from right in front of his own goal after Bauza had dinked an effort over an sprawling McLaughlin.

89min: Williams glances a header a yard or two past the far post from Evans corner.

87min: SUB - Webster has been substituted as Dean Beckwith is brought on in his place.

87min: SUB - Speight is off as Scott Dobie is introduced into the action.

85min: YELLOW CARD - Speight is now booked - another caution in the match!

83min: YELLOW CARD - Reckord is booked for a late tackle on Syers around the half way line.

80min: The match is now more evenly balanced with City trying to push things forward.

79min: SUB - Davis is brought off for Northampton and is replaced by Jamie Reckord.

78min: YELLOW CARD - Another booking in the match as Josh Walker is cautioned for kicking the ball away after the award of a Bantams free-kick.

77min: SUB - Northampton bring on Nathaniel Wedderburn for Osman.

76min: Northampton remain the stronger of the two sides at present. City are really struggling to force any period of attacking pressure on Northampton's goal.

75min: Stretched again, City breath a sigh of relief as Osman fires over from around ten yards while under pressure from Syers.

73min: YELLOW CARD - John Johnson is booked for bringing down Speight on the Bantams' left wing.

71min: SUB - Peter Jackson makes another change as Flynn is taken off and Tom Adeyemi is brought on.

70min: City are caught napping for a moment as they briefly stop thinking the ball has gone out for a throw in. It isn't though and City looked stretched until Davis fires a harmlessly shot over the bar from just outside the area.

68min: Hanson does superbly to keep the ball in play on the Bantams' right flank just as it seems it is bouncing out of play. The striker races into the box and plays the ball across the goal, but Davis is able to put the ball behind before Speight can stretch to try and tap in.

63min: City are struggling to muster up anything in an attacking sense at the moment. A weak effort from Flynn straight at Dunn from around twenty yards out is the best the Bantams have come up with so far in this half.

62min: Northampton are on top at the moment, and it has to be said, deservedly level.

60min: GOAL - Bradford City 1 Northampton Town 1 - Harrad dusts himself down to blast the penalty past McLaughlin and level up the scores.

59min: PENALTY TO NORTHAMPTON - Hunt is adjudged to have dragged Harrad down inside the area and a spot kick is awarded to the visitors.

58min: City are still struggling to get going at the start of the second period and Northampton are asking a couple of questions here.

56min: Davis cuts inside before firing narrowly wide of McLaughlin's near post from around twenty yards out.

48min: YELLOW CARD - Ofori -Twumasi is booked for a foul on Ellison around the half way line.

47min: YELLOW CARD - After being warned during the first half, Bauza is booked for another foul.

Syers will play at right back at the start of the second half, while Hunt moves into the centre back spot left by Oliver.

46min: Northampton restart the match.

SUB: David Syers is on at the start of the second period for Oliver, The big defender did appear to be struggling with a hamstring problem at the end of the first half.

HT: Bradford City 1 Northampton Town 0 - Speight's 8th minute penalty remains the only thing seperating the two sides at the interval. City seemed to struggle to kick on after their spot-kick opener and Northampton have caused one or two panicky moments since then. City may hold the lead at present, but they will be hoping to improve in the second half.

45min: 2 minutes to be added on at the first half.

43min: YELLOW CARD - Michael Flynn is now booked for dissent.

40min: Bauza's shot from outside the area is straight at McLaughlin.

39min: YELLOW CARD - Oliver is booked for a late tackle on Davis down by one of the corner flags near Northampton's goal.

35min: Osman gets to Jacobs' near post corner first, but luckily for the Bantams, his glancing header goes across goal instead of into it.

34min: Northampton are starting to put City under some slight periods of pressure once again.

32min: Luke O'Brien forces Dunn into a full length save to tip over his left foot thunderbolt from around 25 yards out.

28min: Ellison fails to make the most of Oliver's knock down into the six yard box from a City free-kick as his control lets him down from close range. Despite being in a good position, Ellison can't get a shot away and Dunn can gather. The missed opportunity to rendered unimportant though as Ellison is given offside barely seconds later.

26min: Hanson's cross picks out Evans unmarked at the far post, but his first time volley sails way off target.

25min: McLaughlin races out to just nip the ball off Shaun Harrad's toes as the Northampton striker tries to latch onto Jacobs' neat pass through.

24min: Evans hopeful volley from a fair distance away sails harmlessly over the bar - the match is pretty even at present.

21min: After racing onto James Hanson's flick on, Speight's attempted flick of his own for goal from around six yards out is just deflected over the bar.

18min: City just about clear a Northampton corner before a free kick is awarded to the Bantams for a push on a City player. It's lucky for City that the kick was awarded though, as barely a second or two later Byron Webster crashes the ball past Jon McLaughlin with a superb half volley from the edge of the area.

17min: Northampton have actually responded quite well to going behind are they are putting City under a bit of territorial pressure at the moment.

12min: From the resulting kick, Abdul Osman is inches away from connecting with Jacobs' free kick at the far post, but the ball drifts out for a goal kick.

12min: YELLOW CARD - Jon Worthington is booked for hauling down Michael Jacobs around twenty yards from goal in a wide position.

8min: GOAL! Bradford City 1 Northampton Town 0 - After fighting off the advances of Ellison and Gareth Evans to take the kick, Jake Speight steps up to send Chris Dunn the wrong way and hand City the lead.

7min: PENALTY TO THE BANTAMS! Kevin Ellison's cross into the box hits Seth Nana Ofori - Twumasi's hand and a spot kick is awarded!

3min: Steve Williams comes barely inches away from slicing Marcus Hall's low centre into his own goal. The central defender sticks a boot out to divert the ball away, but can only watch as it slices off his foot and sails just past McLaughlin's far post.

0min: The Bantams kick off

Northampton seem to have been forced into a change before the match has even started. Ryan Gilligan, down as a starter for the Cobblers, has not appeared on the pitch and Liam Davis has jumped up from the subs bench to take his place.

How the Bantams line up from the start:

GK McLaughlin

DR Hunt
CB Williams
CB Oliver
LB O'Brien

MR Evans
CM Worthington
CM Flynn
LM Ellison

CF Hanson
CF Speight

good report pal

Cheers, pretty crap game though, we never really got going... Doesn't help when our team runs out of ideas and decide to hoof it up field for the rest of the game...