|
New Bradford City boss Stuart McCall received an excellent reception from the home crowd ahead of the game in his first home game in charge, and he was looking to give the Bantams their first home win of 2007.
They could have got off to a good start when twice they almost got through only to be denied by good defending by Steven Caldwell and then Brian Jensen kept out the first dangerous effort on goal.
Very little had been seen of the Clarets as an attacking force, but it was us who took the lead when Ade Akinbiyi got in front of the defender to get on the end of a ball into the box from Michael Duff and steered it past the keeper.
It didn't inspire us either on or off the field. The play was somewhat lethargic whilst some of the Burnley fans were seriously letting the club down with some appalling chanting, in a week that has been brilliant for our club this almost made you feel ashamed to be part of it.
There's no doubt that the home side didn't deserve to be behind but they failed to take their chances, that was until just before half time when Omar Daly beat Jensen with a shot into the bottom corner. It was the least they deserved as the teams went in at half time.
Our only change at the start of the second half was the goalkeeper but it wasn't long before we did make some changes. They didn't change the game and the second half was hardly a spectacle for the crowd with hardly a chance at either end. The closest we came was a shot from Steve Jones which went wide of goal.
Bradford were offering little but things suddenly got a little easier as Wayne Thomas set about cementing his place in the side for the opening day of the season. There's competition for places but if you remove the competition then you are in.
It was real It's a Knockout stuff. He firstly smashed the ball at Michael Duff which brought his night to an end. Stephen Foster was his replacement and Thomas didn't need long as he went for a ball that was clearly the substitute's. The result was that they clashed heads and both had to leave the field.
For the next few minutes we played with nine men, reminiscent of the game there back in 2002 when they scored a late equaliser whilst down by two. The two players had to change shirts and shorts before eventually getting back on, and both of them required stitches.
After that the game just petered out ending at 1-1. There'd been little excitement for the crowd and it has probably brought us back down to earth a bit after some good results and the news from Monday. That's probably no bad thing.
The teams were;
Bradford City: Donovan Ricketts (Ben Saynor), Darren Williams (Tom Harban), Paul Heckingbottom (Luke O'Brien), Paul Evans (Craig Bentham), David Wetherall, Mark Bower, Joe Colbeck (Kyle Naughton), Eddie Johnson (Tom Penford), Barry Conlon, Kyle Nix (Luke Medley), Omar Daly (Scott Phelan)
Burnley: Brian Jensen (Gabor Kiraly 45), Michael Duff (Stephen Foster 64), Wayne Thomas, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan (Wade Elliott 54), Alan Mahon (Steve Jones 54), John Spicer (Joey Gudjonsson 54), Chris McCann (James O'Connor 54), Jon Harley, Andy Gray (Besart Berisha 66), Ade Akinbiyi (Jay Rodriguez 86)
Referee: Jonathan Moss (West Yorkshire)
Attendance: 2,705