By Ayyaz Malik
Bradford survived a scare in the first round of the FA cup, to progress to the next round at the expense of Yorkshire rivals Halifax. The Bantams made the short trip to their local rivals who are flying high on the cards. The game was televised, maybe because the media were expecting a shock, which seemed to be on the cards as well.
The upset was on the cards when Lois Maynard stabbed home his effort past Bantams keeper Ben Williams. Credit to Bradford they battled back and scored 2 goals in three frantic second half minutes through on-loan Jonathan Stead and Filipe Morais . Both goals were set up by half time sub Billy Clarke, first Clarke set up Stead with a threaded ball, who rounded the Halifax goal keeper Matt Glennon- before slotting home.
A few minutes later – it was Clarke again the provider for the second goal and what ultimately proved to be the winner. Billy Clarke this time fed Morais, who thumped the ball across goal and score what ultimately proved to be the winner. This result also ended a five game winless run for the Bantams.
As for Halifax, they can take spirit for producing such a performance against opposition that are two leagues above theirs. Halifax did have their chances and Maynard could have added his and what would have been Halifax’s second, the Halifax man was denied on 34 minutes with a superb point blank stop from Bradford keeper Ben Williams.
Six minutes later it was Scott Boden who missed a chance to make it 2-0 to the home side, Boden who was unmarked from Richard Peniket’s shot over on 40 minutes. In football they say ‘you need to take your chances or you will get punished’ sadly for Halifax they did – and were ruthlessly punished by Bradford.
The result will be hard on Halifax – but football can be cruel sometimes, as for Bradford they will be hoping for another cup run. Amazingly Jonathan Stead (one of Bradford’s goal scorers) needed special permission from his parent club Huddersfield to play in this game, Bradford must be very grateful that Stead did play, otherwise this could have been a different game with a different result.