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Dean West was passed fit and made the starting line up at the expense of Lee Roche who was relegated to substitute with Alan Moore missing out altogether. Otherwise it was an unchanged Burnley side from the one that lost at home to Forest in midweek.
The Clarets went forward from the off and Delroy Facey should have done better in the first attack of the match. With Luke Chadwick free on the left Facey chose to go it alone and hit a dreadful shot that was yards off target.
There were chants aimed at former Clarets’ keeper Marlon Beresford when he made a hash of a couple of clearances one of which he was fortunate not to concede a goal with as it cannoned back. Needless to say he took some stick.
In fact it was at the other end where we saw some more dodgy looking goalkeeping as Brian Jensen went down in similar fashion to a bag of King Edward’s as he made a routine save look somewhat difficult. He got away with it though in what was probably our only real scare in the first half.
Although they did have one or two openings Bradford looked a side without any real ideas going forward and their best chance came when the assistant referee missed a blatant offside but it came to nothing.
The Burnley fans did keep a close eye on Nicky Summerbee who was training with us recently and in fact was made an offer before he moved to Bradford. He certainly looks like his dad, runs like his dad and moves like his dad but on this performance that is where the similarities end. There was nothing at all to suggest we had missed out.
The play was to be honest as bad as anything we have seen all season and it was no real surprise to see half time approach with the score still 0-0, neither side really looked capable of scoring a goal and a goalless draw was already being predicted.
Then, in something of a rare move for Burnley, we decided to have a shot at goal and Marlon had to get down smartly to keep Robbie Blake’s long range effort out. There was nothing he could do a couple of minutes later though when Blake found Ian Moore who made no mistake to give the Clarets what looked like a half time lead.
It was but only because a minute later Jensen made an excellent save to prevent Bradford from equalising seconds before referee Dean blew for half time.
And half time brought us a wonderful and surprise moment when out onto the pitch came one of our 1960s stars Brian O’Neil to make the half time draw. And what a reception he received from those of us who can remember the batting midfielder.
He must have wondered what had been going on in our midfield during that first half as we failed to get a grip at all on the game but that was set to change.
Paul Weller was introduced at the start of the second half and surprisingly for Tony Grant who had not played all that badly. It was later revealed that Grant was not feeling too well.
Almost from the kick off our performance changed. Lifted by that first goal just before the interval we went looking for more and nobody will ever know how we didn’t double our lead within four minutes.
Again it was Blake with the shot and again it was Beresford with the save but this was the moment when Beresford was to make his big mistake. He failed to hold the shot and only succeeded in parrying the ball to the unmarked Facey just three yards out.
2-0 to the Clarets, well no not quite. Facey somehow contrived to miss the chance, an easier one will never come his way, and he managed instead to put it wide. Turf Moor fell into a stunned silence and almost immediately Bradford came close to equalising.
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Chadwick, now looking much more comfortable on the right hand side, was coming more and more into the game as the Clarets continued to go forwards and only six minutes after his first Turf Moor goal came his second.
This time it was with his right foot as he hit home with some power after a Mo Camara cross had only been half cleared. Right foot, left foot, it mattered not to Chadwick who was by now tormenting the Bradford defence.
But no more so than their former player Blake who was involved in just about everything. "We’ve got Robbie Blake," sang the Burnley fans as the visitors in the Cricket Field Stand could only sit and watch him turn it on as he had done for them so often in the past.
And he nearly lifted the roof off the Harry Potts Longside when he made it 4-0 with still over 20 minutes to go. It was Farrelly again who played the perfect ball but the finish was just magnificent as he sublimely hit it into the corner with the outside of his foot.
It was almost Burnley v Marlon now and he made any number of saves as we finally found our shooting boots. Moore, Blake goodness knows how many times, and substitute Chaplow all brought the best out of the ex-Claret who was by now holding us at bay single handedly.
I think it is fair to say he could have expected more from his defenders but this Bradford City side is not the best that has been at Turf Moor in recent times, more they are one of the worst sides we have seen for some time.
As it was the fourth proved to be the last and the fans who were chanting, "We want seven," in the end had to settle for four, three points and a boost to the goal difference.
With 43 minutes gone of a tedious game a 4-0 win was never on the cards but in the second half we simply tore them apart. Farrelly who had been poor in the first half came out in the second half and showed the sort of form he had shown at Stoke, maybe he had been inspired by Brian O’Neil.
Chadwick, back on the right hand side played extremely well as did many others including David May and Paul Weller. Facey, despite his miss, worked hard, won a lot of headers and certainly more than his fair share, and for the second successive match hit the woodwork, this time cannoning a shot from a tight angle off the bar.
But I’ll save the best until last and as I saw it you can take your pick from these two for Man of the Match. There was Robbie Blake who inspired us during the second half, the player who received a superb reception from all four sides of the ground at the final whistle. The visiting supporters were even on their feet applauding when he scored.
The second choice is the one player that I thought was outstanding from start to finish, the central defender who made it his business to ensure that Burnley came off with a clean sheet. Andy Todd has looked a good player since he arrived at the Turf, today I thought he turned in a superb performance.
The choice is all yours though and even though Robbie had me on my feet so often during that second half I’ll cast my vote the way of Todd.
A word too about the referee. It was an easy game to handle, there wasn’t a foul worthy of any action but to be fair, and he is a card happy referee normally, he refereed the game with common sense.
He got a few things wrong and there was a five minute spell in the second half when he got most things wrong but overall he did well. Although he was badly let down by one of his assistants who had a nightmare.
We’re back in the top half now, and can take a rest from league action as we go to Scunthorpe for a Carling Cup tie. I’m sure I can recall one brilliant day out at Glanford Park around three years ago.
But it is good to be back above half way, it is good to see another team in this division who are clearly nowhere near as good as us, and good to now need only another 38 points to get to Stan’s first target.
The teams were,
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Dean West, David May (Graham Branch 74), Andy Todd, Mo Camara, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake, Tony Grant (Paul Weller 45), Gareth Farrelly (Richard Chaplow 78), Luke Chadwick, Delroy Facey. Subs not used: Lee Roche, Matt O’Neill.
Bradford City: Marlon Beresford, Simon Francis, David Wetherall, Jason Gavin (Gareth Edds 66), Paul Heckingbottom, Nicky Summerbee (Ben Muirhead 55), Paul Evans (Luke Cornwall 81), Andy Gray, Lewis Emanuel, Dean Windass, Michael Branch. Subs not used: Kevin Sanasy, Frazer McHugh.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirrall).