Canvey Island FC 1-0 Bradford City

by **BantamValley** Thu 22 Jul - 12:11:12

Pre-season friendly
Wednesday 21 July 2010
Canvey Island FC 1 (Hallett 59)
Bradford City 0
Kick Off: 7.00pm
at the Brockwell Stadium

The Bantams fell to the first defeat of their pre-season programme thanks to a single goal loss at the hands of Canvey Island FC in a low-key affair.

The tale of the match could have read different though if it wasn't for the heroics of home keeper James Russell.

Russell, who played under Peter Taylor at Stevenage, denied his old manager a fourth friendly win on the trot with some stunning saves.

Canvey sub James Hallett registered the only goal of the match just before the hour mark and barely minutes after Russell had arguably produced his best save of the match to keep out Gareth Evans.

Hallett's goal was Canvey's reward for a hard-working performance from the home side, but they still owed a lot to Russell's efforts during the match.

While no defeat is ever ideal, this loss will surely be forgotten once the real action starts at Shrewsbury Town in just over two weeks.

The main concern of Taylor and his coaching staff will be that his travelling playing squad have picked up another vital 45 minutes under their belt to add to their efforts against Stambridge the previous evening.

Trialist David Syers did pick up a knock to his foot though during the match and left the ground on crutches, making him an obivous doubt for the remainder of the tour.

Along with Syers, fellow trialists Chris Simm and Lewis Hunt were given a half each as Taylor continued with his policy of swapping sides at half time.

After a slow start to the match, a pass from Scott Neilson, who was sporting a newly shaven head, set Simm racing in at Russell's goal. The trialist's shot with the outside of his boot was well struck but the home keeper got behind the effort to palm it away.

City's next big opening of the match fell to James Hanson, but the striker tried to be too precise with his effort inside the area and fired his shot over as he went for the top corner.

Simm headed onto the roof of the net from Robbie Threfall's corner, but Omar Daley squandered a promising opportunity late in the first period when he elected to shoot from a tight angle instead of squaring the ball to a team-mate.

After missing the Stambridge match after feeling unwell, Steve Williams was fit enough to take his place in the Bantams second half line up.

The Bantams started the second period with a brief flurry of chances, but each time they were thwarted by that man Russell.

The home keeper showed great reflexes to deny Evans instant snap-shot from close range, before his mere presence moments later stopped Jake Speight from scrambling home at a corner.

Both Evans and Speight were involved soon after but Russell produced another fine save to keep out the former Macclesfield man. Speight crashed the rebound against the post, but he had already been given offside.

With Russell clearly enjoying his moment in the spotlight, he went on to produce the best of his bunch shortly afterwards .

Firstly the home stopper was forced to dive full length to keep out Leon Osborne's angled shot. The ball rebounded up to Evans, who looked set to smash home, but Russell amazingly sprung up to parry out his fiercely struck close range effort.

Russell smart double save was to prove even more important for Canvey shortly afterwards when City fell behind for the first time during their pre-season programme.

The Bantams defence was caught napping briefly as they suddenly found themselves out-numbered in defence. Gary Cohen was allowed to square to Jason Hallett, who had the easy task of tapping home from close range.

Jon McLaughlin had to be alert to deny Canvey grabbing a second of the evening within ten minutes of Hallett's effort.

Defender Rob King climbed unchallenged at the far post to head Cohen's free-kick goalwards, but thankfully the Bantams stopper flung out an arm and tipped the effort onto the bar and over.

The Bantams rallied as time ran out, with Simon Ramsden becoming the latest player to be denied by Russell as the home stopper kept out his top corner bound effort with another top drawer save.

Time was left for one more chance for City in the match, but Syers free header was blocked on the line.

Bradford City first half line up:

13. Lloyd Saxton
2. Lewis Hunt
3. Robbie Threfall
4. Louis Horne
5. Zesh Rehman
6. Luke Oliver
7. Scott Neilson
8. Tom Adeyemi
9. James Hanson
10. Chris Simm
11. Omar Daley

Bradford City second half line up

1. Jon McLaughlin
12. David Syers
14. Simon Ramsden
15. Luke O'Brien
16. Gareth Evans
17. Lee Bullock
18. James O'Brien
19. Shane Duff
20. Jake Speight
21. Leon Osborne
50. Steve Williams