Bradford City 1 Darlington 0

Feb 28 2010 Sunday Sun

DARLINGTON slipped to another away defeat, but deserved reward for their second-half endeavour.

They pegged City back with some flowing football through midfield, but the final pass was lacking as relegation looms ever closer.

Darlington started brightly, Tadhg Purcell seeing his close-range drive blocked by Steve Williams with less than two minutes on the clock.

The heavy pitch was more suited to Bradford’s direct style, and new signing Mark McCammon was not far off target with a header.

New Bradford manager Peter Taylor, in his first home game in charge, had clearly wasted no time in instilling his football philosophy into his players. They got the ball forward early and relied on their robust forwards to deliver.

And it worked on 26 minutes, Gareth Evans crossing for James Hanson to head firmly home.

With referee Karl Evans keen to reach for the book – he showed yellow to four players in the first half – there was little flow to the game, but Bradford kept Darlington on the back foot with a string of diagonal balls over the defence.

Quakers struggled to make inroads, though skipper Ian Miller moved forward to meet Gray’s cross, only for his header to strike former Darlington defender Matt Clarke.

In the first half Darlington couldn’t test Bradford keeper Matt Glennon.