Salford City fell to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Bradford City, despite being cheered on by the club’s highest ever League Two attendance.
The game was watched by 3,923 supporters including a healthy away contingent of 1,341 who travelled from Bradford.
Salford head coach Neil Wood wasn’t impressed with some of his team’s performance, but he did take some positive aspects out of the 90 minutes and said: “Second half, I thought we started slowly but we grew into it and we hurt them.
“We created some good chances, we got down the left a lot with some deliveries, and we just couldn’t find a way of putting it in the goal.
“Not enough clear cut chances, and that’s what I said to them (the players) and we need to find consistency. We’ve had games where we dominate possession and we dominated possession today, but we didn’t turn that into chances.
“We get into good positions and the final ball is not good enough. So we’re working on that like you wouldn’t believe!”
Neil Wood’s side struggled to get a foothold in the early exchanges of the game as the visitors bossed possession and made good use of it.
Andy Cook’s early strike for the Bantams came as no surprise as the Yorkshire outfit took the lead they fully deserved. Cook’s goal today sees him sit second in the League Two goal-scoring charts on an impressive tally of 10 for the season already. He showed his finishing expertise, after timing his run to perfection, as he poked Romoney Critchlow’s through-ball into the far corner past a helpless Tom King.
Prior to their goal, Bradford City had been knocking on the door, and Ammies ‘keeper Tom King did well to thwart a Tyreik Wright effort.
The Ammies initially responded well to going a goal behind, and just moments after the home side had conceded, they rattled the cross-bar through Callum Hendry who latched onto Ibou Touray’s dangerous cross. This moment was controversial, as Salford captain Ash Eastham protested that Hendry’s effort had in fact crossed the goal line and the score-line should have consequently been level: “A legitimate goal from Callum (Hendry) had hit the bar and gone over the line and it’s obviously not been seen by the linesman.”
However, Salford did not manage impose that sort of pressure on Bradford’s strong defence for long, and appeared to lack creative ideas for the majority of the first half.
Mark Hughes’ side probably deserved their half-time lead despite the goal-line incident which did not go in Salford’s favour.
The Bantams began the second half in the same vein they started in the first, and almost instantly put the Ammies’ backline under pressure.
Former Blackburn Rovers man Harry Chapman glided past the Salford defence, and if his shot had not been blocked by Ryan Leak, the Bantams midfielder would have scored a stunning solo goal.
Bradford came close to sealing their victory before the additional time period, but were denied by Tom King who gathered a chipped effort from Chapman.
Following this loss, Salford have now gone four home games without picking up a win. Neil Wood addressed this matter: “In every one of those games we’ve dominated and we haven’t put our chances away.
“It’s come back to haunt us on some occasions. It’s not a concern.”
Saturday’s result sees Salford’s unbeaten home record against Bradford come to an end as the Bantams picked up their first ever win at the Peninsula.
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